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CWU: Your Voice in Enterprise Bargaining |
27 April 2012: Telstra Bargaining Update #2
The CWU and other Telstra unions met with Telstra on Thursday 26 April as part of the current enterprise bargaining negotiations.
This was the second formal meeting between Telstra and the unions' Single Bargaining Unit (SBU) and was again largely concerned with establishing an agreed approach towards and timetable for bargaining.
There was also some preliminary discussion of one of the central issues for these negotiations:
Lastly, the issues of the length of the new Enterprise Agreement (EA) and its scope (who's in and who's out) were discussed but not finalised.
Bargaining timetable
The SBU and Telstra have reached a broad agreement on the timetable for the next few months of negotiations up until mid-August.
The CWU proposed some changes to the original draft timetable as it seemed to us that it would be better to deal with such issues as the length of the agreement and its scope (i.e. who's in and who's out) once its likely content was more clear.
Telstra agreed with these proposals. A copy of the revised timetable will be posted on the CWU website. Members should regard it as a guide rather than a hard and fast set of dates as all parties agree changes might be necessary as talks progress.
Scope of agreement
As previously reported to members, both Telstra and the union agree that, in principle, it would be better to have one agreement for all Telstra employees rather than hundreds -in fact thousands - of separate ones (EAs, ECAs, AWAs, ITEAs).
At present, though, some employees who might want to be covered by the new agreement may not be. Employees on AWAs which have not yet reached their expiry date may not be "in scope". They also may not have the option of coming onto either the present or the new EA until that expiry date is reached.
The CWU believes that all AWA-based employees should be given the option of coming onto the present or the future EA whether or not their AWAs have expired - if they wish. Under the current laws AWAs can be terminated at any time if both the employer and employee agree.
Telstra has agreed to consider the unions' position on this question.
Telstra "work model"/job descriptions
Job descriptions and related pay structures are set to be at the centre of these negotiations.
Currently the jobs of employees in Category 1 of the current Telstra EA or on Part A of ECAs are classified on the basis of what was initially an agreed system (the Hay system). Workstreams and job descriptions based on this system were negotiated with the Telstra unions in the mid-1990s.
The other system currently in use in Telstra is what the company calls the "Job Family" model. This was adopted by Telstra without negotiations with the unions during the Howard era and now applies to the majority of employees likely to be covered by the new EA.
Telstra and the unions have agreed to set up a working party to see whether it is possible to move to a single "work model". This will be a complex task and will in the CWU's view require input from the people who know most about current Telstra jobs i.e. those who do them. It should not be simply a desk-top exercise.
The CWU will report to members on the composition of the working party and its methods of work once it has been set up. Our aim of course will be to ensure that, at a minimum, no employee is worse off under any integrated "work model".
The CWU considers that this element of the proposed EA poses a major challenge to all parties and that there are no "quick fixes" in this area.
Members should also note that although classification structures and pay levels go hand in hand, it is not at this point intended that pay increase issues be addressed directly by the working party.
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