CWU News - Communications Union

Start of Day - End of Day - Section 12 of the 2015-2018 Telstra EBA.

What are your legal requirements resulting from the current Telstra EBA if you are automatically dispatched?

For many years, the EBA legal issue of the "unpaid" half hour "give" on either side of your paid day has been poorly understood, particularly by Telstra team leaders, who seek to extract as much goodwill from CWU members as they can, no doubt to improve their KPI's, and gain "brownie points" from their bosses.

The recent implementation of "real time" monitoring by Team Leaders of your whereabouts using the GPS co-ordinates changes nothing - your log on and log off arrangements have not changed for many years.

START OF DAY

You are only required to do the following at the start of day:

Commence to log in/on no later than half an hour prior to the paid start time (e.g. if your start time is 08:00am, commence to Log on at 07:30am). You then calculate how far the first allocated job is, then commence to travel in the remainder of the unpaid half hour. If you work out that the first job is around the corner, you only have to be there at the start of the paid time, so there is no need to get the wheels turning immediately. If the job is greater than the remaining unpaid travel time (ie within the unpaid 30 minutes) you would start the wheels rolling as soon as you have finished logging in/on.

NOTE: The only function being done in the unpaid time is logging in/on and driving - no other work function should be undertaken - customer contact, dropping in at the depot to pick up stores, picking up other staff, fast testing, etc, etc - logging in/on and driving ONLY. Any work function carried out in this time is regarded as overtime, and should be claimed as such.

END OF DAY

You are only required to do the following at the end of the day:

Travel home in the unpaid half hour.

NOTE: Driving (ie travel) is the only function required at the end of the day - if it is apparent that you will not be home by the expiry of the unpaid half hour, you should contact the team leader/work management centre to ascertain whether you should leave early, or get approval for overtime. Travel is the only requirement in the unpaid half hour - you should not be logging off, dropping in to the depot, contacting customers, sorting out stores (particularly at home), etc - these are paid functions, and should only be done inside paid work hours, or in an overtime situation.

For further information, contact the CWU State Branches on the following:
VIC - Telecommunications & Services (03) 9663 6815 JOHN ELLERY
VIC - Postal & Telecommunications (03) 9387 0189 VAL BUTLER
NSW - Telecommunications & Services (02) 9281 2811 ALEX JANSEN

Authorised by Alex Jansen State Secretary
CWU Telecommunications & Services Branch