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Telstra EA 2012: Bargaining Begins
Bargaining for a new Enterprise Agreement (EA) in Telstra has officially begun with Telstra formally notifying its employees of bargaining on Wednesday 28 March.
This follows a number of preliminary meetings with the CWU and other Telstra unions to discuss the broad timelines for bargaining.
As reported in earlier E-bulletins, the CWU has agreed to an early start to negotiations so as to have the best chance of reaching an agreement which the union can recommend to members by the time the current EA reaches its nominal expiry date in October this year. This will be no easy task.
Telstra has said that it wants to create one simple, fair agreement. But it brings to the table the unwieldy legacy of the Howard era in the form of thousands of individual agreements (AWAs and ITEAs) and over 60 non-union collective agreements (ECAs), themselves, like the EA, divided into two parts with different classification and pay structures.
Rationalising these agreements in a way that does not disadvantage any employees and which delivers a fair pay rise and good conditions to CWU members will be a challenge for all the negotiators.
The CWU is committed to bargaining in good faith to achieve an agreement which:
The Telstra unions are due to meet with Telstra on 4 April to draw up a preliminary list of bargaining issues and to establish a negotiating timetable.
CWU member survey: What you said about the Telstra EA
CWU members have sent some clear messages to their EA negotiators through the membership survey conducted during February and March. Member responses to the survey were the first item on the agenda when the CWU's Telecoms Council met on 22-23 March to consider the union's priorities for this new round of bargaining with Telstra.
All state branches reported a good level of response and the CWU believes that the feedback represents a reliable indication of the views of members going into these negotiations. Without exception, members from each state identified protection of the existing conditions as highly important objectives for the next EA, in particular:
Needless to say, a good pay rise and resolution of the pay disparity between EA and ECA employees also ranked high among members' priorities. But for a large number of members the number one issue was job security - a view which reflects the rising concern both within the Telstra workforce and the community at large about the outsourcing and off-shoring of Australian jobs by Telstra and other big Australian corporations.
The CWU negotiating team will ensure that these and other issues raised by members are put firmly up-front when formal negotiations begin.
Telstra EA: the nuts and bolts of bargaining
This is the second time that CWU members have bargained with Telstra under the rules laid down by Labor's Fair Work Act. So for many E-bulletin readers the rules of engagement will have been familiar even before they received their bargaining kit from Telstra.
By way of reminder, here are some of the key features of the Labor bargaining system.
Bargaining representatives.
Every employee has a right to be represented in bargaining by a representative of his or her choice and the employer must advise them of this fact.
Union members are automatically represented by their union unless they explicitly decide otherwise. Other employees may choose to be represented by an individual or a specialist bargaining company. In fact, though, very few employees choose to go down this path.
What this means in practice is that many Telstra employees won't be directly represented in bargaining at all and won't get a say in the direction that negotiations take over the next 6 or more months.
Being a union member is an employee's best guarantee of getting his/her issues on the table and having input into the way negotiations proceed.
Good faith bargaining.
Under Labor's laws, employers cannot refuse to bargain as they could under the Howard government's WorkChoices legislation.
What's more they must bargain in "good faith" - as must employee bargaining representatives, including unions.
The "good faith" rules do not, however, require negotiators to reach agreement.
If no agreement can be reached both employees and employers may consider protected industrial action. Arbitration by Fair Work Australia (FWA) of the issues under dispute is generally not available unless the stalemate has reached a crisis point as occurred with the recent Qantas dispute.
Many commentators on both the employer and union side of the debate regard this as a major problem with the Fair Work Act.
Voting on the EA.
All employees who will be covered by the new EA will be able to vote on any proposal for an agreement.
Around 20,000 employees will be "in scope" to be covered by the new EA. They include:
A number of employees will come into scope during the course of the negotiations as their current agreements expire.
If you are in doubt about your position in the bargaining process, contact your state CWU branch.
Award modernisation and the Telstra EA
We receive a number of queries from members about the progress of the Telstra award modernisation case and its implications for this current round of Enterprise Bargaining.
Late last year Fair Work Australia heard an application from Telstra to cancel all its current awards and replace them with the modernised industry award, the Telecommunications Services Award (TSA). The TSA is in a number of important respects inferior to the current Telstra awards, especially as regards hours of work (38 hours a week as opposed to 36.75 Hours.)
We and other Telstra unions made a counter application for the creation of a modern enterprise award which would preserve our current core award conditions.
Fair Work Australia has still not handed down a decision on these applications.
This means that right now the existing Telstra awards provide a "floor" for bargaining and for the certification of any final agreement which must leave employees "better off overall" compared to award conditions.
However the uncertainty over the future of the Telstra awards is unfortunate. Depending on the outcome of the FWA case the CWU and other Telstra unions could find themselves having to negotiate a new modernised Telstra award at the same time as negotiating a new EA.
Alternatively, the bargaining "floor" could change in the middle of negotiations.
We will be raising these issues with Telstra with a view to ensuring that these uncertainties do not disadvantage members during the current round of negotiations.
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