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CWU: Your Voice in Enterprise Bargaining

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CWUnion: Your Voice in Enterprise Bargaining

09-11-12 Email Bulletin No 21

Fair Work Australia still considering Telstra EA.

The Telstra Enterprise Agreement 2012-2015 is still before Fair Work Australia (FWA).

Before Fair Work Australia can approve the Agreement it must be satisfied that it meets the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT). This involves FWA checking the Agreement against the relevant award provisions for different groups of employees.

In the case of this most recent Agreement FWA's job has been complicated by the fact that the new EA is designed to cover nearly all Telstra employees including those previously covered by separate agreements such as the Salesforce and Senior Officers agreements.

FWA has now asked for clarification of the relevant award classification structures and pay rates for Telstra retail employees. It needs this so that it can assess whether or not Section 9 of the EA (Telstra retail outlets) meets the BOOT.

FWA has asked that this information be provided by 9 November. The CWU would expect a decision on the EA to be made soon after that date.

26-10-12 Email Bulletin No 20

1. Telstra EA: approval expected soon

The Telstra Enterprise Agreement 2012-2015 is currently before Fair Work Australia (FWA) for approval.

Under the Fair Work Act, FWA has to assess the agreement to make sure that it complies with all the requirements of that legislation. In particular it has to be sure that the agreement meets the Better Off Overall test i.e. that employees on the agreement are better off overall than they would be if they were simply on award conditions.

There is a number of relevant awards that will have to be looked at as part of this exercise. The changed format of the Agreement, which has no clause numbers and is worded differently from the awards, may create difficulty in assessing the Agreement.

The CWU understands however that FWA is attempting to deal with the Agreement as soon as possible and that no obstacles to its being approved are expected to arise.

Once the Agreement is approved, the pay rises it provides for will be paid on the first pay day after that approval and will be backdated to the first pay period in October.

2. Telstra reviews facilitative/flexibility agreements

The new Telstra Enterprise Agreement (EA) establishes the conditions of employment that will apply to most Telstra employees for the next three years.

Under the Agreement, however, Telstra and employees have the option of varying those conditions if agreement can be reached about doing so.

The main mechanism for making such changes is the group facilitative agreement or "group flexibility agreement" as it is called in the new EA.

Telstra has traditionally made use of these agreements in areas such as Network Construction where teams are sometimes required to work non-standard hours in remote locations over a set cycle e.g. three weeks on one week off. A recent dispute involving CWU members working in such locations has highlighted the need to standardise procedures where changes to standard working conditions are required.

So Telstra is now reviewing all current Network Construction facilitative/flexibility agreements while at the same time working with the CWU to develop a template for future agreements.

The procedures will, of course, be governed by the requirements of the EA in this area i.e. such agreements

  • must be in writing
  • must be supported by a majority of employees in the affected work area/group (through a formal vote);
  • must be notified to the relevant CWU state branch 14 days before it is due to come into operation
  • can be terminated after 14 days notice by either Telstra or the employees (by majority vote).

    CWU members who are already on or are approached to move onto such an agreement should make sure these rules are being observed. The CWU also strongly advises members to contact their state branch to discuss any such proposals before agreeing to them.

    12-10-12 Email Bulletin No 19

    1. Strong support for Telstra Agreement

    Telstra employees have given a clear vote of approval to the proposed Telstra Enterprise Agreement 2012-2015.

    As most E-bulletin readers will now know, just over 80% of those who voted in the ballot voted YES. Equally significant was the high participation rate with some 60% of all employees who were eligible to vote doing so.

    These results are a strong endorsement of the Agreement and are in accord with the feedback that the CWU received from members and other employees during the consultation period.

    During that period, the union received a number of queries about aspects of the Agreement, including the pay differential between former EA and ECA employees, the continuation of overtime entitlements for technical staff and the number of rest breaks for call centre employees.

    On the whole, however, CWU officials reported a positive response from members to the total Agreement package, including to the level of the pay rise which for most CWU members will average just over 4% per annum (once the effect of compounding is taken into account).

    The Agreement must now be lodged with Fair Work Australia and will become operative once it has been approved. The new pay rates, however, will be effective as from 1 October, with the first pay based on the new rates due on 10 October.

    2. Telstra Enterprise Agreement: unfinished business

    When negotiations for the Telstra Enterprise Agreement 2012-2015 began there were over 60 different collective agreements and still thousands of individual agreements (AWAs and ITEAs) operating in Telstra.

    A major objective of the recent EA negotiations was rationalisation and simplification of those agreements so that as many Telstra employees as possible would enjoy the same terms and conditions of employment.

    The new agreement largely meets that objective - but not entirely. In particular it has retained differences in pay and classification structures i.e how work is described and rewarded in the company. Despite committing considerable time and effort to exploring the issues, the unions and Telstra could not reach agreement in these areas.

    The new agreement, however, commits Telstra and the unions to continue to work on these issues.

    This will be a major task. Job descriptions will need to be re-evaluated in the light of changing technology, work practices and skill requirements. Current banding arrangements in both the Workstream and Job Family models may also need to be reconsidered.

    And of course the degree to which individual performance should determine employee pay outcomes will remain contentious.

    The participation not only of CWU members but of all Telstra employees in this ongoing discussion around jobs, pay and pay principles will be essential if an agreement on acceptable arrangements is to be reached over the next three years. The CWU will be exploring ways of ensuring that participation as the discussion unfolds.

    3. Are you on a Telstra AWA or ITEA?

    The new Telstra Enterprise Agreement (EA) is designed to cover virtually all Telstra staff other than those in the upper management ranks.

    Over 22,000 employees were eligible to vote in the ballot. That includes those whose individual employment contracts -AWAs or ITEAs - had reached their nominal expiry date. These employees can now go onto the new Agreement if they want to.

    Another 6,000 or so employees who are currently on non-time expired AWAs will be able to come onto the EA during the first half of 2013.

    So now is the time for employees to consider whether they wish to terminate their individual contracts and come onto the new collective agreement.

    Coming off an AWA/ITEA: what are the rules?

    Any employee whose AWA/ITEA has reached its nominal expiry date can now come onto the EA. However not all employees have the same options as to what sections of the new agreement will apply to them. It depends on what work you do.

    AWA/ITEA employees who currently do work that is the same as that currently performed in the CFW or TW workstreams can come onto the Workstream conditions in the EA. All other employees coming off AWAs/ITEAs will automatically go onto the Job Family conditions (unless their contracts expired before 24 September 2010 and they did not work in a retail outlet at that time).

    These rules can be found in the Dictionary section of the Agreement on p.47.

    CFW and TW type employees on AWAs who choose to come into the Workstream section of the EA can also transfer over to the Job Family side if they want to try it out and come back to the Workstream section if they don't like it - but only once.

    There is also a time limit of 12 months on exercising this option. These rules are laid out on page 5-6 of the Agreement under the heading "Moving between work models". What should I do? The options you have and the advantages or disadvantages of your coming onto any part of the EA will depend on the work you do, your current contract conditions and your current pay levels.

    That is why CWU members and other employees considering coming off their AWAs/ITEAs should first and foremost contact the union for individual advice.

    Some general points, however, should be noted:

    The CWU has received a number of queries from members on AWAs/ITEAs and will be preparing a more comprehensive information sheet to provide guidance on these and other issues.

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