TZV APPEAL MENTORING ALLOWANCE

The appeal by TZV was heard in the Federal Court on Friday. The decision has been reserved.

TZV SUPPORT EBA

Our Steering Committee is currently reviewing the large number of claims suggested for our Log of Claims. We will publish the Draft Log soon, seeking any further claims and feedback. TZV have advised that they should have Government approval to commence bargaining in about 2 weeks. We have pointed out that the EBA required them to commence bargaining last December!

OPTUS EBA VOTE

The ballot for the Optus Employment Partnership Agreement (2025) was open from 10am Wednesday 12 March 2025 and concluded at 5pm on Monday 17 March 2025. Optus has been advised by CorpVote that 1,252 of 1,745 EPA 2025 covered employees participated in the ballot, with 96% of those who voted, voted 'Yes' to approving the agreement.
The FWC will now be asked to approve the Agreement.

OPTUS SHIFT HANDOVER

The dispute over the shift handover payments will return to Court this week for further Conciliation.

TELSTRA OPTICAL FIBRE CASE

We have emailed all those who registered with us. We continue developing a list of members to join our claim for upgrading from CFW4 to CFW5. To register, simply email office@cwu.asn.au with a note.

TELSTRA JOB DESCRIPTIONS

We (the whole union) met again with Telstra to discuss the CFW4 Job Description and exchange views. A number of amendments have been proposed and discussed. We are very clear the new JDs are not to water down the interpretation of the Case our Branch just won in the Court.

TELSTRA VIVA SHOULD WE WORRY?

Monitoring "spyware"" such as Viva has the ability to closely monitor your work, your speed, your times and your other activities. The intrusion is limited, not by the ability of the software, but by promises. Internet searches are useful, but you should be aware of the following:
(a) What in clear terms is the software capable of monitoring?
(b) What limitation are employers promising?
A forum is needed by our IT savvy members to assist us. What do you think?

NBN SOD EOD CASE

Discussions about our Statement of Claim and case details continue. The matter is listed for a directions hearing this week.

NBN EBA

The NBN ABA was approved by the FWC this week. A copy with a linked index is on our web site.
The FWC however did not approve the EBA until NBN gave undertakings as set out below. These are also on our web site.
See the NBN EBA with undertakings.

NBN EBA UNDERTAKINGS

These undertakings are provided on the basis of issues raised by the Fair Work Commission in the application before the Fair Work Commission. See the NBN EBA with undertakings.
1. With respect to clause 13.2:

(a) replace subclause (b) with the following:
Where an annualised pay arrangement is paid the Employer must advise the Employee in writing, and keep a record of:
(i) the annualised wage that is payable;
(ii) which of the provisions of the Agreement will be satisfied by payment of the annualised wage;
(iii) the method by which the annualised wage has been calculated, including specification of each separate component of the annualised wage and any overtime or penalty assumptions used in the calculation; and
(iv) the outer limit of ordinary hours which would attract the payment of a penalty rate under the Agreement and the outer limit number of overtime hours which the Employee may be required to work in a pay period or roster cycle without being entitled to an amount in excess of the annualised pay arrangement in accordance with clause 13.2(c).
(b) insert the following subclause 13.2(c):
If in a pay period or roster cycle an Employee works any hours in excess of either of the outer limit amounts specified pursuant to clause 13.2(b)(iv), such hours will not be covered by the annualised wage and must separately be paid for in accordance with the applicable provisions of this Agreement.

2. Insert a new clause 13.3 as follows:

13.3 Annualised pay arrangements not to disadvantage employees (a) The annualised wage must be no less than the amount the Employee would have received under this Agreement for the work performed over the year for which the wage is paid (or if the employment ceases earlier over such lesser period as has been worked).
(b) The Employer must each 12 months from the commencement of the annualised wage arrangement or upon the termination of employment of the Employee calculate the amount of remuneration that would have been payable to the Employee under the provisions of this Agreement over the relevant period and compare it to the amount of the annualised wage actually paid to the Employee.
Where the latter amount is less than the former amount, the Employer shall pay the Employee the amount of the shortfall within 14 days.
(c) The Employer must keep a record of the starting and finishing times of work, and any unpaid breaks taken, of each Employee subject to an annualised pay arrangement for the purpose of undertaking the comparison required by clause 13.3(b). This record will be kept in the Employer's Electronic Time and Attendance system.

NOKIA VOTE ON MONTHLY PAY

We have initiated proceedings in the Court alleging that Nokia breached the EBA and Award by unilaterally moving to monthly pay (from the fortnightly pay requirement set out in the Award and EBA.). The matter is back before the Court on Friday.
Nokia have decided to ballot staff seeking staff consent to monthly pay. In a notice to staff Nokia have said:

We require your attendance at this vote meeting for those employees that moved from fortnightly to monthly pay in July 2024. Please note that you have been on a monthly pay cycle now for nearly 9 months.
Effectively, we are now required to hold a vote to ensure that you remain under these conditions, and if a successful majority yes vote is obtained, in recognition for any time taken up for this matter, Nokia will give you a one off bonus of $AUD1000.00 plus one day of annual leave.
On 1 July 2024 you all changed to monthly pay, which as you know now means that you receive your pay monthly (and in turn, receive two weeks' salary in advance). This vote is for you to have your say to stay on this cycle.

The vote closed on Friday, but we have not been told the result.