The Guardian 26 April, 2006
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Letters to the Editor
Unions support Optus workers
Your article in The Guardian (April 5) "Bosses prepare for class war" and the OPTUS Human Resources Manager’s comments to a right wing-think tank seminar, clearly hit the nail on the head.
Up to 70 OPTUS field technicians from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have just been sacked in what we believe to be the first example of big business using the new workplace laws for sham redundancies.
The employees were notified by text message to attend a meeting where they were told they were being made redundant. They were then invited to an outplacement seminar not only dealing with how to write a CV but also to facilitate them applying for their jobs back as independent contractors.
Contractors
We estimate that as contractors they will lose between $200 and $300 per week. Telecommunications contractors are required to pay their own superannuation, workers’ compensation, public liability insurance and to provide their own materials and equipment, along with the purchase of a suitable van. OPTUS quoted them $10,000 to $12,000 to buy their existing vans.
It is not known how many of the workers will be re-employed by OPTUS because at the time they were being sacked, on the same site, contractors were being trained to take their jobs. The telecommunications industry is embracing the use of contractors in order to cut costs, by cutting workers’ wages and conditions. Workers not only lose money but also their entitlements to paid sick leave, public holidays and annual leave.
OPTUS a chequered history
OPTUS was established in 1994 under the general push for deregulation and privatisation. Since that time it has benefited from enormous taxpayer funded support at both the State and Federal Government level.
Despite Howard’s strategy for little or no Government involvement in telecommunications, it is somehow Okay for the Singapore Government to control OPTUS. Part of Australia’s defence capability comes under the OPTUS network.
The unions are also concerned that OPTUS Health and Safety standards already under scrutiny by WorkSafe, ComCare and the unions will be compromised as contractors are forced to cut corners in order to meet unrealistic performance targets.
Where to now?
The CEPU, ACTU and the Victorian Trades Hall Council have thrown their support behind the sacked OPTUS workers. A major publicity, political and industrial campaign is underway to show OPTUS Directors and their highly paid CEO that the workers will not just go away.
Already the sackings have received widespread publicity via all the media outlets, a large multi-union rally was held outside the OPTUS Centre and the legal battle has just begun.
These new IR laws are a disaster for OPTUS employees most of whom have families, mortgages and other financial commitments.
On a positive note the actions by OPTUS and other employers around the WorkChoice legislation is galvanising support for a collective response.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that the trade union movement grew by 70,000 in 2005.
Yours In Solidarity
Burt Blackburne
Assistant Secretary CEPU (Communications Division, Victoria)
Queensland’s Hurricane(s)
I cannot believe that you are so quiet about this.
This is a great opportunity to put pressure on Howard and at the same time help the people from Queensland and to bring our soldiers back "alive" is not being used as it should!
The Howard Government should immediately:
1.Stop spending money in killing and bombing Iraqis and Afghanis and to use the money to help our Queensland farmers.
2.Use the surplus budget money to help Australians in Australia and not to kill foreigners in their own countries.
3.Bring back all the 50 or more helicopters from Iraq and Afghanistan. They are needed here now.
4.Bring the ships back to provide supplies and carry heavy machinery to rebuild Queensland.
If global warming — that does not exist according to Howard and Bush — is to cause here similar effects as it created in the USA then I do not think we have seen the last of the category 5 Hurricanes. I suspect it will be another three or four months of hurricanes in our way this year and worse next year!
What if the next one hits below Queensland?
What about Sydney?
And most of our airforce helicopters and heavy machinery is instead killing Iraqis and Afghans thousands of kilometres away.
What are you waiting for?? The next hurricane?
Richard A Greenwood
Glenside South Australia
Pacific Solution no solution
The Pacific Solution was no solution for asylum seekers before. It is not a humane or morally justifiable solution now. Australia should protect Papuan refugees, assess their cases fairly, and offer them a secure and permanent future here if necessary.
At the same time Australia should encourage Indonesia to respect human rights, and not persecute its Papuan citizens. Of course people who experience and fear violence at home, will run for protection.
The Papuans have every right to ask Australia for safety and we are morally obliged to give it. There is no "third country" that will take them. They are our neighbours. It is up to us.
Elaine Smith
West Haven, NSW
More letters please!
There is more to life than politics, but when I read your latest "Letters to the Editor" page and found there was only one letter, all be it, a good one, by Jan Smith, concerning Ms Rice, I was rather disappointed. Did no other letters reach the high literary standard required of your esteemed newsletter?
Perhaps many of the things happening in this country today and overseas leave people so speechless and utterly emotionally exhausted, that putting a few words on paper is a task beyond them. Or perhaps that the idea of "thinking out loud" in a "wartime" "democracy" deters many from voicing an opinion.
Whatever the cause, (and it may be just that the Editor has decided to censor all the other letters) I would just like to say, I would prefer seeing more letters to the Ed, even if they don’t happen to coincide with the opinions of the organisation, whoever is bankrolling it.
Richard Morris
Eastlakes
Note from Editor: We too would like to see more letters! We invite you, Richard, and other readers to send in their letters — other readers would like to hear from you. Different points of view are very welcome. However, letters containing personal attacks, or racist, sexist, homophobic or other offensive content will not be published.