As you may be aware by now, Telstra has announced its intentions to push ahead with their controversial Long Service Leave changes.
The sheer arrogance of this once-great national icon is astounding. That they have the gall to carry out such a bold and unpopular change to long-standing employee conditions, rather than taking it to the bargaining table as part of the EA discussions that are set to commence in less than a week, is a testament to Telstra’s executives’ total contempt for their workforce.
Telstra has caused this problem all for themselves. Slashing their workforce to the bone over the past 10 years, blinded by dollar signs in their eyes, has caused a situation where workers attempting to have their leave approved has been described as trying to draw blood from a stone. This executive greed and arrogance is what has caused their $700 million and growing long service leave liability mess — not the workers. Yet now, you’re the ones being asked to take the hit for the fix.
The complete deterioration of the network, the pyramid contractor schemes used to perform what should be your work on their NBN contracts, outage after outage after outage affecting personal customers at home, businesses trying to conduct themselves online and the safety of the community who deserve access to a reliable 000 service — this is modern-day Telstra, where executive pay packets are all that matters.
Even the shareholders have had a gut-full of having their dividends slashed as profits drop due to customers leaving, what used to be the premium telco offering a premium service, in droves.
Off to court, we go
Your Union, in conjunction with the CPSU and Professionals Australia, along with our legal representatives are now preparing our application to the Federal Court, challenging this latest penny pinching exercise by greedy Telstra executives against their workforce.
Time to step up
But in the meantime, it’s now time for members to step up and have their voices heard loud and clear. Email your team leaders and managers — let them know that you’ve had a gut-full too.
Importantly, ask your colleagues who are not yet CEPU members to join today.
Our strength is in numbers and a strong CEPU is how we will put members in the best possible position to not only protect your hard-won conditions, but fight to advance them in this upcoming round of EA bargaining.
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