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CWU T&S WEEKLY BULLETIN NO 2019/ 04
03 FEB 2019

HAVE YOU VOTED? VOTE NOW
You may be contacted by members of our Committee of Management and other activists encouraging you to return your ballot paper with a YES vote. Or you can help us and email (by reply or to reception@cwunion.net ) with one word "voted". NOTE: do not send ballots to us - the AEC runs the ballot.

COURT FINDS AUS POST BREACHED EBA
The Melbourne Magistrates Court gave a decision last week finding that Aus Post had breached the Post EBA in several areas. The matter arose when a Manager at Post Fulfilment called two women to the office, told them that the team leaders were upset, that he would not listen to them and that he would move them to another job at the same pay. We sought to have the women moved back in Fair Work. Post refused so we pursued a penalty in the Court. The breach included the denial of natural justice and the denial of the opportunity to have a support person. Post argued that it was managerial action only. We argued that it was disciplinary. The Court agreed with our arguments and found that the disciplinary processes were not applied. A further hearing will be held in March to determine the penalty to be paid.

TELSTRA MOVING JOBS OFFSHORE - NOT NEW BUT NOT AUSTRALIAN
The following is an extract from ITNews - Telstra is looking outside Australia to fill many of the 1500 technology roles that were created as part of its massive restructure. The carrier announced in June last year it would eliminate 9500 roles but create 1500 new roles. At the time, the 1500 roles to be created were characterised as "building new capabilities required for the future, in particular ... software engineering, information and cybersecurity". However on Wednesday Telstra CEO Andy Penn told a CEDA event that the majority of the new roles had been fulfilled by offshore workers. "Currently we are sourcing far more of this talent from outside Australia than from within. Given our urgent need, Telstra will be creating a new Telstra innovation and capability centre in Bangalore, which will become operational later this year," he said. Penn said that "Australia's skilled labour market is currently too small to meet Telstra's need for specific skills".

457 VISA WORKERS IN TELSTRA
We have written to Telstra seeking an investigation into the use of s456 visa workers. Our letter stated:

    The Vic Branch has become aware of what appears to be an abuse of the 457 Visa arrangements for staff working for Cyient, an overseas company that Telstra have been engaged to provide Telecommunications Design work, and who have these workers in a Telstra site at the 222 Lonsdale St Melbourne. In addition, there appears to be a number of other sites in other states, namely 275 George St, Brisbane, 231 Elizabeth St, Sydney, and 104 Lawson St, Newcastle. These Cyient 457 workers are working alongside permanent Telstra employees doing the same work as those Telstra employees, but being paid considerably less. The work primarily falls into the Telstra Band 8 Workstream level, in accordance with the current Telstra EBA. It is our understanding that the requirements of the Temporary Work (Skilled) Subclass 457 visa arrangement provide for these staff (who are doing Telstra work under the direction of Telstra management), are to be paid "market salary rate", which is in accordance with Regulation 2.72 (10)(c) associated with the Migration Regulations 1994. It is clearly our view that these workers are underpaid in relation to the Regulations. In addition, it is our understanding that the Employment category, for the purpose of the 457 Visa, is in the "Electrical Engineer Draftperson" category, supposedly due to a defined skilled labour shortage in that category, which does not apply in the case of Telecommunications Design work. Given the current state of Telstra's initiatives regarding the slashing of permanent Telstra jobs, we believe that the use of "cut price" staff doing Telstra work needs urgent investigation. If it appears that these staff are indeed undermining the terms and conditions of permanent Telstra staff, in Telstra workplaces, then these staff should be paid on parity with permanent Telstra staff, in accordance with the current Telstra EBA.

BROADCAST AUSTRALIA RESTRUCTURE?
The rumours are rife and meetings are being held. We will write again to BAI seeking to be briefed on the current position. To date BA has not advertised the 3 vacant jobs at Orange, nor the temporary vacancy at Dubbo.

TELSTRA BULLYING AND ARL
We have written to Telstra re the bullying of field staff to take annual leave. Our letter stated:
The Vic Branch has become aware of an internal email that seeks to pressure staff to reduce annual leave credits to 3 weeks. The message to Team Leaders comes in a 22 January 2019 email "Cost Reductions" from an Adelaide based field services Senior Lead. In part, the email indicates verbatim the following:

    "Our leave is the greatest leaver to pull during low work. Offer long weekends, breaks from the heat etc. Anything you can do to get guys on leave. I'll make this as clear as I can - We are being held to get everyone down to 3 weeks liability. If we come up short then we have not made expectations for the year. I need you to push the Leave as hard as you can."
Clearly, these kind of threats, in this tone, can only be perceived as bullying of staff. This sort of message is unacceptable, and crosses the boundary of reasonable management behaviour in many ways, as well as breaching the current EBA where action on leave should only commence after 6 weeks of credits. Can you urgently investigate whether this is a common theme amongst this Service Delivery leadership group, and if it is, take measures to avoid this becoming more commonplace. Your urgent response is requested.

Authorised by Dan Dwyer Branch Secretary
CWU Telecommunications & Services Branch, Leichhardt, NSW.



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