The CEPU and other Telstra unions met with Telstra on Monday 7 May for further Enterprise Bargaining negotiations. This followed a number of preliminary discussions in March and April.
Jobs and pay structures
The discussions again covered what are essentially the core issues in these negotiations i.e. the structure of the agreement, the way in which jobs in Telstra are classified (the “work model”) and the way employees are paid.
These issues are obviously all inter-related. All parties agree that they would prefer to have one single agreement with one “work model” and one pay system but there has been no discussion yet as to how this might be achieved, especially if no employee is to be left worse off under a new simplified structure.
As reported in Bargaining Update #2, a working party is to be set up to look at these issue in detail and to consider options for rationalisation of the different models currently in use in Telstra (Part A/Part B of the ECAs; Category 1/Category 2 of the EA).
Consideration is being given to whether there should be two separate groups to deal with classifications and pay, given the possibly quite detailed and practical work involved in dealing with classification issues. At this stage, however, it has been agreed that the group should meet as one.
Its first meeting is scheduled for Monday 14 May.
Other issues: consultation and dispute resolution clauses
The discussions also broke ground in two other areas where Telstra has indicated it wishes to see some modification and possible simplification of current provisions: the consultation and dispute resolution procedures.
Under the Fair Work Act all agreements must contain a consultative clause and a dispute resolution clause. However, there is some room for variation of the details.
Members will remember that the dispute resolution clause in the current Enterprise Agreement was hard won. During the years of the Howard government, there was no legal obligation on the employer to agree to take disputes to the industrial umpire, the AIRC (later Fair Work Australia), and Telstra refused to include such provisions in Enterprise Agreements.
This attitude persisted right up to the time Labor’s Fair Work Act was introduced. The ECAs that were made before that time don’t provide for disputes to be referred to Fair Work Australia.
Even now, the law does not explicitly require employers to agree to arbitration of disputes by Fair Work Australia – this is something Telstra employees achieved during the last EA negotiations and dispute.
Now, if the current negotiations result in one single agreement, it is agreed that this provision will be extended to all Telstra employees covered by the new EA.
Telstra, however, has some concerns about the timeframes laid down in the current process and wants agreement about how the steps in the process should be followed.
The consultation clause relates to major changes in Telstra’s operations such as the introduction of new technology or multiple redundancies. Telstra has indicated it sees scope for eliminating overlaps between this provision and the current requirements for consultation over performance pay and redundancy.
The CEPU will be considering this issue further as discussions on performance pay and redundancy procedures evolve.
For our part, the CEPU wants to have input into the consultation process at any earlier stage than the current wording of the clause requires. As it stands, the union considers that the clause allows consultation to occur after the horse has effectively bolted – as in the case of off-shoring decisions, for instance.
These issues will be the subject of further discussion with the next full negotiating meeting scheduled for 21 May.
Your feedback
We encourage feedback from our members on these issues and if you would like to send in your comments, suggestions or questions, please reply to this email or email: feedback@cepu.org
For further information please contact Branch Assistant Secretary Shane Murphy or Branch Official Peter O’Connell at the Union office on (02) 9893 7822.
Comments are closed.
