The Guardian 21 November, 2007
Telstra employees reject WorkChoices
Telstra employees have voted against a non-union employee collective
agreement which unions claim the company was trying to rush through
before the Federal Election.
Employees were first presented with the proposed agreement late last
month, only 10 days before the ballot on it opened on November 3.
The agreement, which would have covered around 1500 employees working in
call and service centres, proposed major changes to existing conditions
in the company, particularly for new employees.
Under the agreement, maximum redundancy entitlements were halved for new
employees. Any employee could be denied a. redundancy pay-out if Telstra
found an alternative job offer for him/her either inside or outside the
company. The Agreement also removed protected award conditions for both
existing and new employees.
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union today congratulated
its members and other employees on the vote against the WorkChoices
agreement, which would have bound those covered by it for five years.
"Essentially, employees have shown they are mistrustful of Telstra's
motives in offering this agreement at this time," Communications
Division Acting Secretary Burt Blackburne said, "especially given the
haste with which Telstra tried to push it through.
"They knew that their current enterprise agreement had nearly another
year to run.
"They were suspicious that Telstra's timing had more to do with the
forthcoming election and any changes to industrial laws that might bring
than with any desire to bring forward a pay rise."
Mr Blackburne said that the vote against the agreement said a lot about
the mood of working people across Australia at present.
"The message that this vote sends is that all employees — not just union
members — know they have a lot to lose under the Howard Government's
WorkChoices legislation which Telstra has been so wilting to embrace."
Telstra is one of Australia's largest users of WorkChoices' non-union
Australian Workplace Agreements.