Telstra's privatisation

by Peter Mac

Employees at the Moe call centre of telecommunications company Teletech in 
Victoria's LaTrobe Valley stopped work last week. The dispute involves a 
wide range of issues, including harassment and discrimination. Some union 
members have waited months for repayment of deductions from their wages. 
The company, which is committed to introducing work practices arising from 
the industrial relations practices of its US parent company, has given no 
explanation for these deductions.

The call centre workers are fighting for their rights as defined in their 
current work agreement, as well as their right to form a union. Employees 
have complained that union members have been dismissed for taking sick 
leave. A pregnant worker was sacked because the company claimed she had too 
many toilet breaks, another because she was suffering from pneumonia.

Others have been placed on a company blacklist because their family 
responsibilities interfered with their ability to work the wildly variable 
hours demanded by the company.

To date, the call centre management have simply ignored their employees' 
grievances.

Stephen Jones, Communications Division Secretary of the Communications and 
Public Sector Union, commented bitterly, "The company's actions are 
reprehensible and un-Australian.

"This company has received generous assistance from the Victorian 
Government to establish its call centres here, and has won a lucrative 
outsourcing contract from Telstra, to service the company's profitable 
MobileNet division. The least they could do is treat their employees fairly 
and sit down and negotiate with the union."

The industrial outrage currently being expressed at workplaces such as the 
Teletech call centres is a symptom of the larger issue of the privatisation 
of Telstra. Telstra is outsourcing a wide range of services.

It has entered into partnership agreements with a great many companies such 
as TeleTech and Foxtel.

TeleTech is an excellent example of the phenomenal parasitic growth in 
relatively recent times of the private telecommunications companies, at the 
expense of Telstra and telecommunications employees.

The US company Teletech, one of the world's largest call centre networks, 
had its origins in the aviation industry some 20 years ago. Its growth in 
telephone communications has closely paralleled the outsourcing and 
privatisation of government telecommunications services in various 
countries.

In Australia it has been one of the chief beneficiaries of 
telecommunications policies adopted by both major political parties when in 
government over the last 20 years.

Part of the company's strategy is to rack up the hours of work for the call 
centre employees. For example, the company noted proudly in one of its 
publications that, "By extending the morning operating hours of the CIC 
(call centre) and by targeting specific customer concerns ... TeleTech 
achieved a 40 per cent increase in call handling with no additional CSRs 
(employees)..."

On the other hand, the company accepts no responsibility for maintaining 
staff positions in times of economic downturn. It states flatly that 
"...the company may, if deemed necessary, consolidate or shut down under-
performing centres in order to maintain or improve targeted utilization and 
margins".

A large part of the debate about the privatisation of telecommunications 
services has centered on the necessity for such services to be provided at 
a high level and on an equitable basis for all members of the community.

In the outsourcing process wages and conditions won by Telstra and Telecom 
employees over many years are being denied to their employees by companies 
such as TeleTech. The very right to belong to a union is at stake, as the 
companies are determined to de-unionise their workforce.

For the government, it's an experiment in the privatisation by stealth of a 
crucial social institution. For the telecommunications employees it's a 
lesson in the ruthlessness and greed of the private sector. For the nation 
as a whole it's a lesson in the sort of industrial relations and service 
priorities we can expect from Telstra, if the government gets away with its 
privatisation plans, whether it becomes owned by Australian or foreign 
capitalists.