Dear Member,

ALEX JANSEN RETIREMENT LUNCH

Our long standing Branch Secretary Alex Jansen has retired. We are having a send-off lunch for him on Saturday December 8. You are invited to attend to send him off with our best wishes. If you wish to attend please phone us on 02 9281 2811 to advise. Cost will be $30 to cover meal and (soft) drinks.

BAI EBA - IMPORTANT EBA NOTE

The Fair Work Commission amended the EBA on certification with an undertaking from BAI. The FWC said that Clause 27.6 of the EBA "shall read and be applied as follows":

"All time worked by a BA Technician:
(a) between the hours of 7pm and 12am;
(b) on a Saturday;
without a minimum rest break as required by clause 31. 5; or
(d) where a full-time employee works in excess of 45 hours in any given week
or where a part-lime employee works in excess of their nominated contracted hours of work
will be multiplied by 1.5 and credited as time in his or her Hours Bank."

LETTER TO TELSTRA RE SICK LEAVE BREACHES

We wrote to Telstra as follows (extract):

Our members have reported a number of practices which we believe either breach the EBA or are a breach of the Fair Work Act 2009. There are three broad categories of complaint. These are

• Telstra has told our members that if they are rostered for overtime (this is forced overtime and a matter we will deal with separately), and the member is unable to attend to do the overtime, "we (Telstra) are within our rights to ask for a (retrospective) medical certificate." This is wrong, a clear breach of the EBA for several reasons, primarily because members have a right to 5 days of sick leave per year without a certificate. It also contravenes Section 340 of the Fair Work Act 2009
• Telstra is including in performance plans a requirement that members meet certain sick leave arrangements in order to qualify for a bonus. It is covered in several headings and specifically in a requirement that a certificate be provided for all sick leave.
• Telstra has introduced and enforced a new set of rules including the following: - If you have taken any sick days within the week, whether it has a certificate or not, you won't be considered for Overtime - If you have over 4 weeks of annual leave you won't be considered for overtime until you have booked some leave to get under the 4 weeks

Clearly these are actions that threaten injury if a member exercises his/her tight to exercise a workplace right.

We obviously seek that all these actions taken and threatened be rescinded and affected members compensated.

SICK LEAVE MEETING WITH TELSTRA

We are meeting with Telstra on Tuesday 20 November to discuss the matter. Report next Bulletin

Authorised by Lee Walkington Acting State Secretary
CWU Telecommunications & Services Branch, Leichhardt, NSW.