POST NSW JCC

The meeting planned for Friday was moved to Monday 4 Dec. Post has now announced appointments. The agenda was set out in last week's Bulletin. Our Representatives will be Dan Dwyer, Paul Sherley, Lakshita Seth and Gerard Cassar. Report next week.

CFW JOB DESCRIPTIONS

Our national union met this week to discuss Telecom matters including the Telstra Job Descriptions. No decisions were taken. Meanwhile we are proceeding with the Court action using the CFW JDs in the wideband and Optical Fibre work areas.

OUR POSITION ON CFW JD

Given the comments of Beba Brunt we are very concerned at the motives of Telstra. Her mention of Grandfathering indicates that Telstra intends to attack technical staff, probably offering a few crumbs to hide a major attack. We will NOT be agreeing to any downgrading proposals (triggering grandfathering) as offsets. We will be involved at every level as our Branch has very detailed knowledge of the JDs and their history.

CFW JD AND THE EBA

The current EBAs have a nominal expiry date of 30 Sept 2024. An EBA then remains if force until replaced. The EBA clause relating to JDs are below. Note the words "for the life of the agreement". This EBA will be a fight as members expect a catch up for the cost of living (CPI).
Telstra will not want the threat of industrial action, particularly if the action is selective. (There will not be a general strike involving all staff.) Selective action last time (several EBAs ago now) was effective despite some CEPU internal problems.
Membership is everything if we want to improve our bargaining power.

TELSTRA EBA CLAUSE EXTRACT - JD

C1.2. The following principles apply:
b) Each Band, within a Workstream, will have agreed representative Core Job Descriptions which form part of this Agreement. There may be more than one Core Job Description for each Band.
e) The Company and The Unions may agree to change the current Core Job Descriptions during the life of the Agreement. However, they will not be changed without such agreement.

ACTU WELCOMES THEFT INCLUSION IN LOOPHOLES BILL

The ACTU welcomes the amendments to the Closing the Loopholes Bill, including the addition of super theft into the wage theft provisions. The amendments respond to the extensive consultation the Government has conducted and the vast majority of amendments are those proposed by employer groups.
The Greens amendment to include super theft is welcomed. Like wage theft, failure to pay superannuation is rife, with recent Super Members' Council modelling showing that on average approximately 2.8 million people are underpaid a total of $4.7 billion in superannuation each year.
Superannuation are workers' deferred wages and consistent with the National Employment Standards, bringing superannuation theft in line with wage theft is a sensible decision.
The union movement won compulsory employer-paid superannuation through worker led campaigns. As a result, nearly every worker in Australia has the right to be paid superannuation for a dignified retirement.
Working people need support with the cost of living and measures that ensure they keep the money that they are entitled to are key elements of the Bill, alongside giving workers greater job security.
The Closing Loopholes Bill, if passed, would:
 Increase the civil penalties for wage theft by six times from 1 January 2024.
 Criminalise intentional wage theft and lift civil penalties even higher from 1 January 2025.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus: "Big business wants Peter Dutton and the crossbench to block this legislation because they are happy to keep wages low and profits sky high."