The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper
of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday,
November 21st, 2001. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills.
Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au>
Subscription rates on request.
******************************
TELCO TREACHERY
Company collapses and treacherous mass sackings without notice are two of
the warning signs of a telecommunications industry in turmoil. In the past
month alone Vodafone, Optus and Orange have announced they are slashing a
further 2435 positions. Unions have dragged all three companies before the
Australian Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) in a bid to save jobs and
preserve workers' rights.
by Jules Andrews
"It is appalling that the standard method for workers in the
telecommunications industry to receive notice of redundancy is through the
media", said Mark Brownlow, spokesperson for the Communications, Electrical
and Plumbing Union (CEPU).
"They appear to be taking an absolutely minimalist view of their legal
responsibilities under the Workplace Relations Act, not to mention their
broader social responsibilities as employer in a major industry", said Mr
Colin Cooper, President of the Communications Division.
Unions say they have been left with "no choice" but to take action through
the IRC.
At a hearing last Wednesday Vodafone denied that they had made a decision
to reduce staff, but this was in clear contradiction to "leaked" public
statements made by the company to the media and signed by CEO Graham Maher.
IRC Commissioner Greg Smith rejected Vodafone's claims as "sophistry" and
ordered the company not to retrench any employees until genuine discussions
had been held with the unions.
A spokesperson for the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) said, "In
the short term it [the IRC decision] has brought immediate relief to many
anxious Vodafone workers. In the longer term it sends a strong message to
employers about the importance of properly consulting staff and their unions".
This follows a similar ruling against Orange/Hutchison the previous week.
The company has now promised that in future it will consult with unions at
least two weeks before any new redundancy announcements are made.
Optus announced another 350 job cuts last week (now 910 in total), and this
week the company is to also appear before the IRC.
The CEPU asked Optus to explain what criteria they were using to decide
which people would be retrenched, and to give assurances they would accept
volunteer redundancies before "simply showing employees the door". The
union took action after Optus failed to comply with either of those requests.
The unions say a primary focus is to minimise job loses, and that proper
consultation would allow them to put forward alternative proposals. The
CPSU says it will go over all redundancy plans with "a fine-toothed comb"
to save every job possible.
Agreement is being sought whereby all companies first try to find positions
for displaced staff in other parts of their operations; or in the case of
departments being outsourced, that employees be allowed to follow their
jobs to the new company.
Unions are demanding that companies then offer voluntary redundancies
before arbitrarily making dismissals. Agreement has been reached with
Orange on this issue and unions hope that Optus and Vodaphone will follow suit.
With the re-election of the Howard Government, the CEPU now has grave fears
of massive layoffs under a fully privatised Telstra.
The union says that during the privatisation discussions, "We were
constantly told that the skilled employees shed by Telstra to please
financial markets would easily find work elsewhere".
"Those claims look pretty hollow now."
Asked to comment on the situation by "The Guardian", CPA General Secretary
Peter Symon said that workers and their unions face a very difficult task
to defend workers' jobs in the face of the decided economic recession that
is already affecting many industries and the technological changes which
are being used to destroy jobs.
He noted however that there seems to be an all-too-ready acceptance of the
inevitability of job losses and that the best that can be done is to insist
on voluntary redundancies and that entitlements be paid, important as these
issues are.
"We have just seen figures of the large amount of unpaid overtime being
worked across the workforce and it seems that little has been done about
this growing appalling situation.
"There has also been the virtual abandonment of the 35-hour week objective
of the trade union movement and, because there has been a lack of
commitment by many unions to campaign on the hours question, employers have
found it easy to impose longer working hours and unpaid overtime", said
Peter Symon.
"It is encouraging to see that some trade unions are beginning to tackle
the rapid growth of casual employment by insisting that casual jobs be
converted into full-time employment.
"The winding back of casual employment, strict limits on overtime, the
payment of all overtime and, most important of all, an Australia-wide
campaign for an across-the-board shorter working week are priority areas
for the trade union movement.
"The tremendous increases in labour productivity brought about by technical
changes fully justify these claims. The usual employer claims that the
improvement of the living standards of workers cannot be afforded have to
be rejected. They are false economics.
"By seriously taking up these issues trade unions would also start to
reverse the serious decline in trade union membership", concluded Mr Symon.
Stunning win at Stellar
In a major breakthrough, Telstra's Stellar call centre staff have been
granted the first Award in the contract call centre industry.
It took a two-year campaign to win the Award, with Stellar employees and
the CPSU fighting not only onsite, but taking the struggle to the NSW
Trades and Labor Council, local and state politicians, holding public
rallies to involve the media, and even registering a freedom of association
complaint with the Office of the Employment Advocate.
The story of Stellar call centres is one of spectacular corporate bastardry.
Telstra set up the company in 1999 as a joint venture with US corporate
giant Excell.
Telstra then outsourced many of its call centre functions and sacked
thousands of its relatively well-paid unionised staff, only to re-employ
them under the "new" company Stellar.
Under the non-union individual contracts (Australian Workplace Agreements)
offered by Stellar, employees suffered some of the worst abuses found in
the call centre industry.
Stellar exploited the inability of workers to bargain collectively,
introducing 40-hour weeks, unachievable work targets, unwritten and
changeable rules, wide-ranging powers for management to instantly dismiss
employees, and wage rates that left full-time employees scraping the
poverty line.
Management dragged known unionists and other staff who challenged the
conditions before disciplinary hearings on trumped up charges. They also
called in security guards or the police whenever a CPSU delegate attempted
to visit the site.
Under the new Award, employees have won a 38-hour week, safety-net
salaries, new penalty rates and redundancy provisions, and recognition of
the CPSU and its delegates.
**********************************************************
--
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/
Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop
Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink
Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
