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CWU T&S WEEKLY BULLETIN NO 2021 / 39
19 September 2021

TELSTRA JABS
Telstra has agreed to extend the consultation period on its controversial mandatory vaccination policy by another week. In Andy Penn's message to employees, it seems his language in terms of this policy position has softened, but it is not yet soft enough. Saying that it would be "extremely rare" for this to occur, is not rare enough. We met with Telstra on two occasions where the Union raised a number of issues with them. This included:

  • Medical exceptions
  • Medical retirement
  • deadlines
    In terms of the broader policy, the union has also sought an urgent formal opinion from our solicitors on the legality of the policy overall and its interaction with other policies and legislation. Once that opinion is in hand, it will be shared in full with members.

    T25 STRATEGY
    This week we got another new strategy - T25: Telstra said:

      The ASX announcement provides details of Telstra's new T25 strategy, to accelerate growth from our core and to scale our new businesses; to further enhance the customer experience and to respond to the permanent shifts we are seeing in how people work and live.
      As shared with employees this morning, T25 does not have a specific target to continue to reduce the size of Telstra. Although we will still need to make some organisational changes that could impact roles as technology and customer needs change and we realise benefits of digitising and simplifying our business.
      In today's announcement, Andy Penn also shared an update on the timing of our proposed legal restructure. As you know, we originally expected to hold a shareholder vote at a scheme meeting in November and to implement the restructure by the end of the year. Andy said today that given a number of external factors that need to occur ahead of a shareholder vote - some of which are beyond our control - we now expect the scheme meeting to occur in early 2022 and to finalise the restructure before the end of T22.
      This morning we have shared an update to employees to let the know that:
    • We expect to complete the legal structure by the end of T22 and we will continue to consult and update employees and yourselves as we progress.
    • Amplitel employees (`TowerCo') are still expected to move to their new employer in December 2021.
    • We propose that employees moving to Telstra Limited (`ServeCo') would receive a new contract in early 2022 (in accordance with Clause 47 of the EA and Telstra Policy).
    • We will provide a further update to employees prior to the end of the year.
      Early next week, it is also expected that we will be in a position to provide further details to Amplitel employees about the next steps of this transition ahead of the end of the year. I will also share these details with you all.

    TELSTRA FORCED LEAVE AGAIN
    Telstra cannot direct you to take annual leave unless it is reasonable to do so. The Enterprise Agreement states examples of this may include:

  • If Telstra is shutting down all or part of the business for a period, such as Christmas or New Year;
  • If you have accrued more than 6 weeks of annual leave (7 weeks for continuous shift workers) - though Telstra won't leave you with less than 4 weeks accrued annual leave if Telstra does this (or 5 weeks if you are a continuous shift worker).
    The periods suggested by Telstra - Friday 1st October and Monday 1st November do not provide any of the reasons as stated above to direct you to take your hard earned Annual Leave. If you plan to utilise your annual leave entitlement at another time that suits you, then that is your right. Contact us if you are under pressure by local management who seem to miss the message.

    OPTUS FORCED LEAVE
    Optus has no right at all to force you ton take annual leave. We took this matter to the Fair Work Commission. The FWC was clear - Optus cannot do it. Contact us if you are under pressure by local management who seem to miss the message.

    USEFUL QUICK LINKS

  • Transferring to Telstra subsidiaries
  • Forced ARL Fact Sheet
  • Forced LSL Fact Sheet
  • Telstra EBA Notes
  • Superannuation Fact Sheet
  • Optus EBA18
  • Post EBA9

  • 0428 942 878 dan.dwyer@cwunion.net Dan Dwyer
    Secretary/Lawyer - industrial matters & advice
  • 0447 365 433 reception@cwunion.net Administrative
    eg payments, applications, change of details
  • Authorised by Dan Dwyer Branch Secretary
    CWU Telecommunications & Services Branch, Sydney City, NSW.



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