NBN FIELD ENGINEERS

We have written to NBN seeking to provide a clear understanding of the present situation, and to identify issues that are outstanding. Our letter can be seen on our special NBN FE Web Page
Our Branch believes that a separate EBA is needed and that discussions start immediately. NBN have agreed to meet and this is likely to be Wednesday.

OPTUS LONG SERVICE LEAVE UPDATE

Optus has advised (Contact us if you have any questions):
We write in relation to Optus' proactive review of its payroll practices following a number of changes to legislation, processes and systems. As part of this ongoing review, Optus has been reviewing historical long service leave payments made to Optus employees during the period 1 Jan 14 to 31 Mar 24.
We have now completed the review and have identified instances where some employees have not received their full long service leave entitlement, resulting in a shortfall in payment during the review period. We have commenced contacting the relevant employees, both current and former, to make the relevant back payments, inclusive of interest and superannuation (where applicable).
Whilst we can confirm the majority of employees affected by this review are no longer employed by Optus, we will use the information available to us to make the relevant communications and backpayments. A contact centre has been established for affected employees to contact with any questions they may have about the long service leave review or the payment they will receive.
Importantly, we are making the necessary investment to improve our payroll systems and controls and we remain committed to ensuring that everyone receives their correct entitlements and in turn, prevent the need for future payroll adjustments.
We value the contribution of our amazing people and we are committed to ensuring everyone receives their correct entitlements, and remediating any impacted individuals promptly. We will continue to provide you with further updates if we identify any material underpayments of entitlements as part of the ongoing review.

TELSTRA EBA PROGRESS?

The following is a report about the latest meeting with Telstra:

This week the unions submitted the following claims:

1. Policies that provide employee benefits should be incorporated into the Agreement.
Enterprise Agreements serve as the foundation document for your terms of employment and should include all benefits due to employees. By incorporating them, these benefits become entitlements. It also ensures that the dispute resolution procedure would apply to their application.

2. A pathway to secure employment arrangements.
We are seeking to introduce a clause that ensures fixed term employees are offered a permanent role following 12 months of cumulative employment.
This provides a clear pathway from insecure to secure employment arrangements, providing certainty to employees and demonstrates the company's commitment to support the long-term career development of the workforce.

3. Contracting out and outsourcing.
We are seeking a commitment from Telstra to prevent out-sourcing or offshoring any roles or duties currently being performed by Telstra's internal, onshore, workforce during the life of the Agreement.
This provision would ensure that at any time Telstra functions are being performed by non-Telstra employees, they are paid at the same equivalent rate as would be payable to Telstra employees - preventing the use of contractors simply to undermine the wages and conditions of Telstra Group employees.

4. Working from Home provisions to be included in the EBA.
The Union acknowledges Telstra's commitment to a hybrid working model.
The benefits of the model have demonstrated improvements to productivity and enhanced Telstra's ability to attract and retain employees. It has improved employee well-being and is proving its ability to future proof the workspace.
As such, we believe the arrangement should be formalised as part of the EBA.

5. Flexible work and a 4-day work week.
The Union is seeking to introduce flexible arrangements, allowing employees to alter their working hours, including accessing a 4-day work week. Further, we seek for this to be the default presumption, in favour of granting the flexibility.

At this meeting, Telstra also provided its response to some of our claims raised and tabled at our last meeting:

1. Access to RDO/ 9-day fortnight for all employees and accrual of RDOs
Telstra have not agreed to this claim. Telstra claims doing so would be an administrative burden and that the current individual flexibility provisions are satisfactory.
We are extremely disappointed with this response and have reiterate our claim that giving all employees access to a 9-day fortnight/RDO allows employees to enjoy longer periods of time off without compromising productivity, enhanced work/life balance, reduced stress and improved mental wellbeing. We argue that it also provides employees with greater flexibility to manage personal commitments such as childcare and pursuing further education.

2. Superannuation paid during workers compensation and on all hours worked.
Telstra have not agreed to this claim.
We have reiterated that superannuation is a critical component of retirement, and by not paying superannuation to workers' compensation entitlements, they are disadvantaged in their retirement for situations outside of their control - and compensable by the company.

3. Abolish junior rates.
Telstra have not agreed to this claim, despite being the only company out of the big three, (Telstra, TPG and OPTUS) that pays junior rates in retail. Telstra will continue with what the Union believes is a discriminatory employment practice.