Telstra’s extremist anti-worker agenda exposed

February 16, 2009

Telstra’s extremist anti-worker agenda has been exposed by the company’s submission to the Senate inquiry into the Fair Work Bill.

In its submission, Telstra argues that unions should be barred from any role in bargaining on behalf of their members, which could be in breach of freedom of association laws protected by the International Labour Organisation.

The telco also calls for unions to be prevented from entering workplaces even when they are eligible to represent the industrial interests of workers. And it wants unfair dismissal laws to be relaxed even further.
It’s now become clear from this submission why Telstra is treating its workforce with such utter contempt.
Not satisfied with using Work Choices against its workers, Telstra management wants to go even further to a system where workers have no rights to representation or collective bargaining, and are at the mercy of their employer.
Among the extraordinary claims in the Telstra submission is that unions’ status as bargaining representatives for their members is “unwarranted”. The right of unions to enter workplaces where they are eligible to represent workers is also “inappropriate”, according to Telstra.

Nor does Telstra agree with the definitions of what constitutes good or bad faith bargaining in the new Bill.

All the amendments proposed by Telstra are designed for one thing: to strengthen the power of employers and weaken the rights of employees to good faith collective bargaining and union representation.

Telstra has been a paid up member of the Work Choices club by taking every advantage of the Howard Government’s laws to undermine workers’ rights and conditions.

It exerted enormous pressure on employees to sign Australian Workplace Agreements before they were banned last year.

It is now racing against time to lock the rest of its employees into Work Choices contracts before the Fair Work Bill is passed. It is carving its workforce up into ever smaller groups in an attempt to pressure them to agree to non-negotiable deals.

But if Telstra had its way, Work Choices would not only be retained, but the attack on workers’ rights would go even further than John Howard had ever dreamed of.

The way in which Telstra behaves demonstrates the urgent need to abolish Work Choices.

It’s ironic that Telstra has sought kudos in the media as a protector of human rights, but these rights appear to stop at the front door of Telstra workplaces, including denying workers of one of the most fundamental of all rights, that of collective bargaining.

The Telstra submission appears to be the handiwork of corporate law firm Freehills – the same lawyers who drafted the Work Choices laws for the Howard government.

This week, two of the three Telstra unions will appear before the Senate inquiry into the Fair Work Bill to explain how management’s use of Work Choices has impacted on employees.

The Community and Public Sector Union appeared on Monday.

Before the appearance, national secretary Stephen Jones delivered a pep talk to several dozen members and activists who had assembled outside the Melbourne Town Hall.

Stephen praised the workers for their campaign and urged them to maintain their commitment to forcing management to respect their rights and to collectively bargain. [pics]

The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union will deliver the same message in Canberra on Thursday.

Written by TelstraUnions · Filed Under News, Telstra HR's dodgy dealings, Union bulletins 

Comments

One Response to “Telstra’s extremist anti-worker agenda exposed”

  1. Andrew on February 16th, 2009 8:46 am

    Once again they shoot themselves in the foot by their obviously hipocritical morals.

    Just don’t pay any attention to Telstra propaganda.

    Telstra is full of Mr. Goebels decendants and they are trying to be better than him.

    If Telstra employees could wake up and band together as a union, and forget about individual monetary goals, then a revolution against bullshit would begin !

    But are they brave enough to do this ?

    Is the CEPU interested in a union such as this ?

    It would entail democracy from below, not as it is now ,where decisions are made by elected union officials.

    Any comments ?

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