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EMPLOYEES ON AWAs - WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
Ref: SLD 12/31 - February 2012
The Howard Government introduced AWAs in order to give employers the "flexibility" to reduce your wages and conditions.
Despite the Howard Government's defeat in the 2007 Federal elections, many workers remain on so-called "WorkChoices" AWAs. Most in Telstra don't expire until late 2012 and early 2013.
Telstra's AWA workers have been in constant danger of having their working conditions reduced (because they are not all guaranteed in the AWA - they are subject to Telstra policy) and having their real wages reduced, because Telstra makes exclusive decisions on their job pay rate and on their annual pay increase without negotiation with anyone.
It is a fact that because you work alongside workmates who are covered by the union-negotiated enterprise agreement (the union negotiates and gains agreement on the EA), that helps keep some sort of "floor" under your pay and conditions.
In the 2010/2012 EBA, the union agreement ensured:
The union is of the view that Telstra should go further now and allow complete freedom by employees on AWAs, to choose the EBA arrangements (regular negotiations on pay increases and negotiation and agreement on the rate of pay for the job etc.) that are best for them, regardless of whether their AWA has expired or not.
The negotiations between the union and Telstra for a new EBA will soon begin. The 2010/2012 EBA has an expiry date of September 2012 and EBA workers are entitled to new pay increases immediately after that.
The union has a view that all employees (whether employed on AWAs, ITEAs, ECAs and EBAs), would be better off under the one EBA. This not only makes good organisational sense, for Telstra it would strengthen employees in their bargaining capacity with the company.
The next steps for employees on un-expired AWAs are these:
2. Check whether your AWA was properly registered with the Fair Work Authority when you signed it.
To check whether Telstra failed to register your AWA with the Workplace Authority in 2007/2008, when you signed up to the AWA (the employer was required by law to have the AWA registered with the Authority), you should send the email below to the Workplace Authority:
If by chance the AWA is not formally registered with the Authority, (apart from this being a breach of the law by Telstra), then your AWA would not be legitimate and it may be possible to transfer to the collective EBA sooner, rather than later if you wished, regardless of whether Telstra agrees or not.
Please notify the CEPU with any developments in this regard and we will help you decide on your options.
3. Send an email to the CWU (cdtsvic@cwu.asn.au) to tell us if you support the union call to give you the right to choose to transfer to the EBA (cat. 1 or 2) at any time.
If your AWA has expired and you are considering exercising your option to transfer to the EBA, please contact the CEPU to help you examine the pay rates and other issues, to make sure you are not being disadvantaged.
Be careful of information on these issues given to you by Managers, as the information is often wrong and in some cases very "loaded" to suit what they believe are the company's interests.
Situation facing employees in Telstra
It should be clear to every employee that we are all in this together.
If we were all united under one enterprise bargaining agreement instead of being divided into AWAs, ITEAs, ECAs and EBAs what a force we would be in protecting and improving the pay, conditions and rights of all Telstra employees.
How do we get there? How are we getting there?
Firstly, all ECA employees should be merged with the EBA workforce in the next EBA in 2012. This was agreed between the CEPU and Telstra in the last EBA negotiations.
Secondly, ITEA employees all have the right by law to choose the EBA, (they all expired 31/12/2009), except if they are employed in a part of the business covered by an ECA. Then they can only transfer to the ECA.
What we now have to do is to win the right for all other AWA employees to choose the EBA, and category 1 of the EBA if they wish, and not to be forced to wait until their AWA expires, or to be forced into category 2 of the EBA (with no negotiated and agreed pay increases and no negotiated and agreed classification pay) as Telstra currently forces you to do. Or, even better, to scrap Category A and Category B altogether.
Employees on AWAs need genuine choice. Not the "no real choice" Telstra currently offers.
I respond to your letter of the 6th March 2012 seeking clarification of some points in a circular being distributed by the Branch.
1. Establish whether you have reason/s to get off your AWA (eg being disadvantaged). Under the Fair Work Act you can get off by agreement with the employer. Contact the CEPU if you think you have a case or you wish to consider the possibility of moving to the EBA before your AWA expires.
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