ESTA TO APPEAL DECISION

ESTA has advised us that they intend to appeal the recent decision where the Court found that ESTA must pay Trainers the Mentoring Allowance. The appeal will take some months in the Federal Court. ESTA will need to convince the Appeal Court that the original decision was wrongly decided.

FIRST NATIONS SURVEY

The Divisional Office is seeking information from First Nations members in the telecommunications industry. The type of information/answers to questions we are seeking are as follows:
1. As an Aboriginal/Torres Strait islander identified person what attracted you to the telecommunications industry?
2. How long have you been employed in the telecommunications industry?
3. What aspects of your work do you find most engaging?
4. What assistance/support have you received from your employer do you feel has help you remain in the telecommunications industry?
5. Would you recommend a career in the telecommunications industry to other Aboriginal/ Torres Strait islander people and, if so, why
If you wish to participate, please advise by return email

PERSONAL AND CARERS LEAVE - NOTICE

No specific requirement re method of notice is specified. Therefore reasonable means will suffice - a phone call is the most obvious. The National Employment standards set out the notice requirements. Section 48 states:
Notice
(1) An employee must give his or her employer notice of the taking of leave under this Division by the employee.
(2) The notice:
(a) must be given to the employer as soon as is reasonably practicable (which may be a time after the leave has started); and
(b) must advise the employer of the period, or expected period, of the leave.

OPTUS MINIMUM SALARIES - UP 7%

Here are the minimum rates that must be paid by Optus for each level. The increase of 7% is in line with CPI ending March each year. Check that your salary exceeds these minimum levels.

Date	  30 Mar 22       01 Jul 22       01 Jul 23
14	$103,639.00     $108,924.59     $116,549.31
13	$ 89,818.00     $ 94,398.72     $101,006.63
12	$ 80,776.00     $ 84,895.58     $ 90,838.27
11	$ 69,775.00     $ 73,333.53     $ 78,466.87
10	$ 60,301.00     $ 63,376.35     $ 67,812.70
 9	$ 55,123.00     $ 57,934.27     $ 61,989.67
 8	$ 59,983.00     $ 53,583.13     $ 57,333.95
 7	$ 45,590.00     $ 47,915.09     $ 51,269.15
 6	$ 41,069.00     $ 43,163.52     $ 46,184.97

OPTUS SALARIES - EBA CLAUSE

7.3 Optus Remuneration Management
(a) Whilst recognising that this Agreement reflects minimum entitlements only, Optus is committed to the retention of performance based remuneration schemes for full and part time employees.
Optus schemes will continue to be designed to further enhance Optus' focus on individual and group productivity, team work and customer service and its employees' commitment to this focus. Consistent with current practice, and as is necessary to ensure their effective implementation, such schemes will continue to be developed and implemented as determined solely by Optus management. Application of the schemes, including the relevant performance requirements, will be discussed with Optus employees.
Optus Human Resources and management will ensure that these schemes are implemented both fairly and equitably.
(b) As part of the implementation of these schemes Optus commits to:
(i) Continue to maintain Optus remuneration ranges with a range span of at least 35% over the minimum rates specified in the Agreement. The Optus remuneration ranges will be realigned each year taking the minimum rate adjustments into account.
(ii) Maintain an incentive potential of up to 20% of remuneration for employees covered by the Optus General Incentive Plan. Optus will budget a minimum of 10% per annum to meet the anticipated cost of the average incentive payment.
(iii) Continue to budget a minimum of 2% of Optus employee remuneration costs specifically to cover annual performance based remuneration assessments. This budget is over and above that allocated to cover the minimum rate adjustments in Clause 7.2(h).
(iv) Continue to review the adequacy of remuneration for eligible employees in Optus identified `fast skills development positions' on a 6 monthly basis.

ELECTION OUTCOME

The AEC has advised the outcome of the recent elections which was uncontested. Our new Officials from 1 August 23 were as follows. Sue Riley has resigned from her positions but is still a full time employee of our Branch. Dan Dwyer is now acting as Branch Secretary pending a new election.

Branch President 					WELBOURN Kelvin 
Branch Secretary 					RILEY Sue 
Branch Assistant Secretary 				DWYER Dan 
Branch Vice President Technical	 			FALLS Glenn 
Branch Vice President Operator	 			-
BCOM Member 01 - Technical Industry Section		DE SOYZA Keith 
BCOM Member 02 - Technical Industry Section		DUBOIS Pierre 
BCOM Member 03 - Technical Industry Section		ELLERY John 
BCOM Member 04 - Technical Industry Section		JOHNSON Neil 
BCOM Member 05 - Technical Industry Section		LIGHTFOOT Paul 
BCOM Member 06 - Technical Industry Section		MCCALLUM Ian 
BCOM Member 07 - Technical Industry Section		PLANINSIC Andrej 
BCOM Member 08 - Technical Industry Section		SEYCHELL David 
BCOM Member 09 - Technical Industry Section		SHERLEY Paul 
BCOM Member 10 - Technical Industry Section		WANDEN Ian 
BCOM Member 11 - Technical Industry Section		WASILEWSKI Peter
BCOM Member 12 - Technical Industry Section		WILLIS Margaret 
BCOM Member 13 - Technical Industry Section		YOUNG Andy 
BCOM Member 14 - Technical Industry Section		-
BCOM Member 15 - Technical Industry Section		-
BCOM Member 16 - Technical Industry Section		-
BCOM Member 17 - Technical Industry Section		-
BCOM Member 18 - Technical Industry Section		-
BCOM Member 19 - Operator Industry Section		-

Divisional Executive Technical Industry Section (NSW)	DWYER Dan
Divisional Executive Operator Industry Section (NSW)	-
Divisional Executive Technical Industry Section (Vic)   RILEY Sue
Divisional Executive Operator Industry Section (Vic) 	-

Divisional Conference Technical Industry Section (NSW)	DWYER Dan
Divisional Conference Operator Industry Section (NSW)	-
Divisional Conference Technical Industry Section (Vic)	RILEY Sue 
Divisional Conference Operator Industry Section (Vic) 	-