CWU SIGNAL No. 686 – 10 August 2016
CWU (T&S) Vic ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, WEDNESDAY 24 AUGUST at 6PM, TRADES HALL, Cnr LYGON/VICTORIA Sts, CARLTON in MEETING ROOM 2
(Use Lygon St entrance, MR2 is located opposite Reception. Street parking usually available)
- Telstra prepares to send more jobs offshore.
- Pubs support sacked CUB workers
- Visionstream (Silcar/Telepower) Telecommunications: EA update.
- CWU to meet with Telstra on GPS monitoring.
- Modern slavery: unions call for action.
- Visionstream (Silcar Communications): bargaining continues.
- Union Dues – Taxation Purposes
- TELSTRA PREPARES TO SEND MORE JOBS OFFSHORE
Just weeks after announcing its intention to cut several hundred positions from its contact call centres, Telstra has now notified the CWU that it proposes changes that will see a range of billing and credit management functions outsourced and offshored.Changes in Global Financial Services (GFS) will mean a net loss of 204 roles (including some currently vacant), with 139 of these to be outsourced/offshored. A further 35 roles will be offshored from Complex Billing Solutions (COBS) in Telstra Service Operations (TSO).
The CWU was notified of these proposals on 5 August and is yet to meet with Telstra about them. Obviously, though, the union deplores a workforce strategy which is clearly being driven simply by a relentless search for cheap, exploited labour irrespective of its impact on individual employees, on their families and on Telstra’s own service quality and standing in the community.
Members affected by these proposals should contact the branch for advice and support. The union is also interested in members’ views about the likely operational impacts of the changes.
2. PUBS SUPPORT SACKED CUB WORKERS
A number of pubs have turned off their taps in support of workers sacked by Melbourne-based Carlton and United Breweries (CUB).In June, 55 maintenance workers at CUB were called to a meeting and informed without prior notice that they were terminated. The workers were then ‘invited’ to reapply for their jobs with a company called Catalyst Recruitment, which is in the Programmed/Skilled Group.
The invitation to apply for a job:
- came with no guarantees;
- was based on individual contracts underpinned by a barely compliant non-union EA;
- involved a massive reduction of terms and conditions, including an approximate 65% reduction in monetary entitlements.
The workers have been on the picket line ever since – but not without support. The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) which represents the workers has called for a boycott of CUB products and a number of pubs have responded by ceasing to offer Carlton Draught, Crown Lager and Victoria Bitter.
In Melbourne, the popular Lincoln Hotel and Kent Street Bar are among those supporting the boycott. Further afield Queensland-based Grand Hotel Yamanto took to Facebook to show its support for the sacked workers.
“We have currently taken Victoria Bitter Australia off our taps and won’t be selling any CUB products across our bars to show our support for the 55 workers that were sacked. Could you survive on 65% of the wage you’ll receive this week?” said the pub’s administrator Michael Falvey.
The Battle of the Brewery is heating up and the regular Thursday protest has been moved to 3pm.
Thursday Rally
When: Thursday 11 August, 3pm (Tomorrow)
Where: CUB Abbotsford – Southampton Cres, Abbotsford
Battle of the Brewery – Fundraiser For The CUB 55
When: Thursday 11 August, 5:30pm – 10:30pm
Where: Trades Hall Loading Bay (Enter via Lygon St carpark)
Food, entertainment and non-CUB product to drink
Please share both invites widely – all are welcome. Rallies in support are to be held On Thursdays.
Details can be found on the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/183483678734742/
3. VISIONSTREAM (SILCAR/TELEPOWER) TELECOMMUNICATIONS: EA UPDATE
The CWU and other bargaining representatives met with Visionstream Telecommunications (formerly Silcar Telepower) on 26 July with a view to trying to reach agreement on a new Enterprise Agreement (EA) for the company.
This was the third meeting that had been held since employees voted to reject an EA put to them in May. Since then the CWU has been working to try to reach a resolution on issues which members and other employees have identified as barriers to agreement.
We have had some movement and reached preliminary agreement around some of these:
- Inclusion of Aurizon employees on the stand by roster arrangements
- Reinstatement of the Concession Day public holiday for NSW employees.
- Increase in the amount of leave that must be preserved under the Shortage of Work clause.
We are still in discussions around the planned overtime clause and are seeking to clarify elements of the recall provisions, especially the way they operate when an employee receives a second call-out after having reached home after the first. The CWU has put the view that in this case both call-outs attract the 4 hour minimum payment.
There has been no movement on the proposed pay rise.
The next bargaining meeting is scheduled for 11 August.
4. CWU TO MEET WITH TELSTRA ON GPS MONITORING
The CWU has requested a meeting with Telstra to discuss recent changes in its use of GPS monitoring of field staff.
The changes were advised to the CWU late last month, no consultation has occurred. They involve providing real time email alerts to managers about employee start and end of day activities.
Under the new arrangements:
- A system alert will be generated if there is no vehicle movement after an employee’s scheduled start of day.
- An alert will also be generated if a vehicle has returned to the garage address during an employee’s rostered shift time (greater than 6 hours after shift start time and more than 15 mins prior to shift end time).
- An alert will be generated to advise if a CT has not returned to their garaged location 90 mins after their scheduled end of day.
Currently managers are able to manually inquire about an employee’s movements via the Teologis GPS system and can access a weekly log of such GPS-generated information but are not automatically notified of such details at the time.
Telstra says that the information that will be provided under the new system will be no different from the data already available to managers and that the changes will, among other things, assist in improving health and safety monitoring.
Obviously, however, the real time alerts also have the potential to increase the intensity and frequency of managerial oversight of individual employees – that is their purpose.
While it is early days, the CWU wants to hear from members about any impacts this change is having on them to date, along with any other issues related to Telstra’s ongoing use of GPS monitoring.
5. MODERN SLAVERY: UNIONS CALL FOR ACTION
Australian unions have called for stronger action by the federal government to wipe out practices which they say amount to slavery in a modern form.
The call was made to coincide with the World Day against Trafficking in Persons on 30 July.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there are 21 million people worldwide who are victims of trafficking and forced labour, with the Asia Pacific region accounting for 56% of the figure. An equal number are trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labour servitude.
Unions say that recent scandals in Australia exposing exploitation on a massive scale in agricultural supply chains and the retail industry show that local employers don’t have clean hands in this area.
In fact the 2016 Global Slavery Index estimates there are some 4,300 people living in modern forms of slavery in Australia.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is calling on the Turnbull Government to ratify the 2014 ILO Protocol to the Forced Labour Convention to give Australian unions more ammunition in the fight against these extreme forms of worker exploitation.
According to ACTU Secretary, Dave Oliver, the government must ensure that there is better regulation, more transparency and greater resources should be used to prosecute those responsible, regardless of where they sit in the supply chain.
6. VISIONSTREAM (SILCAR COMMUNICATIONS): BARGAINING CONTINUES
The second full bargaining meeting between the CWU and Silcar Communications (now part of Visionstream) was held in Parramatta, NSW, on 28 July.
It was attended by CWU Divisional officers together with a number of other employee representatives, both members and non-members.
As reported in earlier Bulletins, these negotiations are likely to be particularly difficult as management wants to use them to create a “glide path” to a combined Silcar and Visionstream field workforce agreement in 2018.
At present, however, Silcar employees have significantly better conditions than those on the Visionstream EA and are naturally keen to retain them. Clearly there will be a number of issues that will prove very difficult to achieve agreement on.
The recent meeting focussed primarily on what Silcar has identified as being, from its point of view, the big ticket items ie ordinary hours of work (36 ¾ vs 38), overtime rates, the Silcar redundancy trust fund (MERT etc) and the salary base on which superannuation is paid (inclusion of overtime or not).
Discussions basically involved the parties sounding one another out on these issues and attempting to establish the dollar value of current entitlements. No agreement was reached, however, on any one of the items.
The parties have apparently met again on the 8th and 9th of August with the aim of being able to hold further nation-wide employee consultations soon afterwards. Members will be kept informed of progress.
7. UNION DUES (TAXATION)
Union dues for taxation purposes are on the web – www.cepuvic.org.au
If you need a tax letter for your accountant contact the branch 9663 6815 or cdtsvic@cwu,asn.au