Optus Award Modernisation
The CWU met with Optus on 17 March to discuss finalisation of the modern Optus award.
Last year, the Fair Work Commission agreed that Optus should have a modern enterprise award rather than being covered by the modern industry award, the Telecommunications Services Award. But it sent Optus and the CWU off to have further discussions about the award’s content.
The CWU supported Optus’ application for a modern enterprise award because, on balance, it considered that it would provide better protections in some key areas, especially redundancy.
The Optus award redundancy entitlement is (up to) 40 weeks’ pay, the same as that recently inserted into the new Telstra modern award.
The modern industry award, the Telecommunications Services Award, provides a maximum entitlement of only 16 weeks’ pay.
Optus is not seeking to change any of the current award entitlements and the CWU is seeking some improvements in a small number of areas. There is also a number of technical requirements relating to the minimum wage rates in the award that need to be addressed.
The CWU is optimistic about these matters being resolved before bargaining for a new enterprise agreement commences later this year. A further meeting with Optus is scheduled for 31 March.
Then There Were Three: TPG Makes Bid For iiNet
In a move that promises to reshape the local telecommunications industry, fixed broadband provider TPG has made a bid for the current number three broadband operator, iiNet.
If successful, it will create a company that will command the number two spot in this section of the market, relegating Optus to third place. Between them iiNet and TPG have around 1.7 million fixed broadband customers – nearly twice as many as Optus, which continues to make little headway in this area.
Apart from creating headaches for Optus, the merger creates some interesting questions for policy makers. The move, if approved by the ACCC, will represent a further consolidation of the fixed broadband market at a time when a thousand flowers were supposed to bloom over the wholesale-only NBN.
A major rationale for the NBN project was to encourage greater competition at the service level by creating a monopoly fixed network to which all service providers had access on equal terms.
But as industry itself has been pointing out for some years now, the prices set by NBN Co for that access mean that smaller companies may struggle to survive.
Back in 2011, Internode founder, Simon Hackett warned that broadband service providers would need at least 250,000 customers to operate in an NBN world. Since then consolidation has continued, including the acquisition by iiNet of both Internode itself and Canberra-based TransAct the same year.
Meanwhile, TPG has been buying up fixed networks, acquiring Pipe’s assets in 2010 and last year those of AAPT.
iiNet founder Michael Malone is now predicting that there will only the three wireline internet service providers by the end of 2015, with the M2 Group the only one of the main players at present left to be absorbed.
Vodafone Next Takeover Target?
The proposed takeover of Internet service provider iiNet by rival TPG has led to speculation about TPG’s further ambitions in the market.
The takeover will create a company that would be a new number two in the wireline broadband market. But without a presence in the wireless space, particularly in mobiles, the company’s future expansion opportunities will be limited.
That is why some industry insiders are tipping a TPG bid for Vodafone, the number three mobiles player in Australia and a company which has struggled to maintain a secure foothold in the market almost from the time it began operations here back in 1992.
Vodafone’s share of mobile subscribers has hovered around 20% for several years and there has long been speculation about whether it had a future in Australia. And according to iiNet founder, Michael Malone, it is not too big a fish for TPG to swallow.
“I’ve seen some commentators suggest it’s worth about a $1 billion plus the assumption of [its] debt,” Malone recently told an industry conference.
“That’s something TPG could manage, and [TPG CEO] David Teoh is brave enough to actually attempt something like that.”
One Award Should Fit All, Says Big Business
Big business has laid its cards squarely on the table on the issue of future working conditions in Australia.
In its submission to the Productivity Commission’s review of current workplace laws, the Business Council of Australia (BCA) has proposed a further “simplification” of the current award system with the ultimate goal of having one single award for the whole workforce.
Needless to say, that award would be very simple indeed.
It would not contain casual loadings, overtime and penalty rates or shift loadings. These would be rolled into the Minimum Wage setting process, currently conducted by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). The aim would be to achieve “consistency” across the whole of the workforce.
The “consistent” penalty rate would of course be the minimum rate possible – e.g. a 25% extra loading – and, under the proposal, this would apply to every worker regardless of the time of the shift or the industry involved.
Obviously this is a recipe for a massive decline in conditions for millions of working people.
While it is enterprise agreements that set the actual entitlements of employees in today’s system, awards still play a vital role as safety nets, ensuring that where workers lack bargaining power fair basic job standards still apply.
That is why the CWU has devoted so much time and energy to protecting our award conditions in both Telstra and Optus during the award modernisation process.
The work standards set by awards exist today because generations of working people have fought for them and defended them.
The BCA proposal represents an attempt to wipe out this legacy. As such, it stands as a warning of what big business has in store for Australian workers – if it is allowed to get its way.