Australia: TELSTRA Workers Set to Strike id BAA18960; Thu, 16 Oct 1997 01:15:30 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit from Green Left Weekly #293 10/15/97 Telstra workers to strike By Tim E. Stewart At stop-work meetings on October 8, more than 3000 Telstra members of the Community and Public Sector Union voted overwhelmingly in favour of a national 24-hour strike on October 17. The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, covering mainly field staff, has also held mass meetings and adopted a campaign of ``work to rule'' and ``other selected actions'' to be determined by state branches. The industrial action has been sparked by a proposed enterprise agreement designed to prepare Telstra for partial privatisation. The agreement abolishes 12 awards and 80 agreements, replacing them with a ``core award'' containing only the 20 ``allowable matters'' under the federal government's Workplace Relations Act. Those conditions that can't be covered in the core award will be included in company policy, allowing management to alter them at will. Telstra is proposing a six-day working week, from 6.30am to 7pm Monday to Friday, and 7am to 6pm on Saturdays with only a 15% loading (it is currently 50%). Management will reserve the right to roster half- and full-day shifts during these hours with only seven days' notice. Telstra also wants to eliminate internal promotion and disciplinary appeal processes, and remove the rights of union officials in dispute avoidance and resolution. As well, it is proposing to end access to facilities needed by union delegates to hold meetings, distribute bulletins and attend certified training courses. Telstra is also proposing to re-grade job classifications according to a system which benchmarks salaries against market rates and values responsibility for budgets and use of technology over public contact skills. This means that the majority of customer service staff (overwhelmingly women) could have their jobs valued lower and therefore be under pressure to take on more work. Telstra will not rule out the introduction of individual contracts and performance based pay. Already, significant changes to work practices have taken place, particularly amongst customer service staff. Pay is already linked to productivity improvements, and failing to meet sales and performance targets can lead to daily harassment by supervisors and ultimately disciplinary action. Targets and performance monitoring are worked out by senior management and presented to staff at one-on-one ``coaching'' sessions with their supervisor every month. In one call centre, performance in one area was forced up by more than 300%. Telstra's only offer in return for these trade-offs is an immediate 2% wage rise and a once-off cash bonus linked to productivity improvements over the next 12 months. Yet in its September internal staff bulletin, Our Future, Telstra announced a 1996-97 operating profit before tax of $3.8 billion, up 17.5% on the previous year. At the same time, 12,000 staff were cut, with another 7000 to go this year. Telstra plans to shed 25,500 jobs over four years. A bulletin circulated by the Democratic Socialist Party supporting the October 17 strike points out that Rob Cartwright, formerly of mining company CRA and well-known for his union-busting role in the Weipa dispute in 1995, was recruited to smash the Telstra unions in order to lower the company's wages and conditions bill. The driving force behind these attacks is privatisation, it says: ``All the trade-offs in working conditions, the erosion of pay levels, the outsourcing, staff contracting, and the `resource re-balancing' have little to do with providing better service to ordinary users but everything to do with making a huge profit for the big investors in Telstra''. [Tim Stewart is a CPSU Telecommunications Section councillor.] oOo Telstra dismisses union delegate By Leo Wellin In a test case against unlawful dismissal, union militant Mervyn Vogt is appealing to the Federal Court against Telstra's sacking of him for producing a rank and file newsletter. Vogt, a workplace delegate for the Community and Public Sector Union at the 24-hour tele-marketing centre in Melbourne, was charged in May for producing and distributing a newsletter called Nighthawks. The newsletter, well received within the workplace, lasted 12 months. It was critical of Telstra management and examined broader issues of the Liberal government's changes to workers' compensation, foreign investment and industrial relations laws. Vogt was charged with ``failure to obey a directive'', ``inciting fear and insecurity'' and ``being in conflict of interest with Telstra's code of conduct'' - all dismissible offences under Telstra policy. The initial in-house investigation of the charges found Vogt guilty and he was dismissed. He appealed against the decision to the internal disciplinary appeals board. At one point during the hearing a deal was agreed: Telstra agreed to drop all charges and Vogt would be relocated to another Telstra site. However, after Telstra's barristers held a lengthy teleconference with senior management, the company decided to continue proceedings, citing ``the broader political implications'' of dropping charges. Vogt was eventually found guilty of ``failing to obey a directive'' and ``being in conflict of interest with Telstra's code of conduct''. The decision of the board - which includes CPSU nominee Ruth Barton (herself a manager) - was unanimous. In the current enterprise bargaining negotiations, Telstra is aiming to eradicate all internal review mechanisms involving unions, as well as the disciplinary appeals board. -30- Six-month airmail subscriptions (22 issues) to Green Left Weekly are available for A$80 (North America) and A$90 (South America, Europe & Africa) from PO Box 394, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia http://www.peg.apc.org/~greenleft/ e-mail: greenleft@peg.apc.org ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytlab-10.16.97-01:15:31-7939