ECIS REVIEW

We met with Jacinta Thomson and others this week to hear more about the ECIS Review. Our Support EBA Committee had raised several maters that needed clarification. The first issue was the report that staff may take pay cuts when being redeployed. This will not happen see item below. The second issue was the advertising of positions without salaries. We got a partial answer- if you won the position your salary will not be below your current salary. While that is not a complete answer, we have it on our log of claims for the EBA.

ECIS REVIEW SALARY IF REDEPLOYED

Following our meeting we wrote to Jacinta Thomson as follows:
I refer to our meeting this week. I wish to confirm our understanding re redeployment.
If a staff member is redeployed/transferred to an alternative position as a result of the restructure proposals, either voluntarily or otherwise, there will be no reduction in salary. Salaries of the redeployed staff member will continue to increase in line with the EBA increases.
TZV confirmed the above as follows:
I can confirm that a redeployee will be salary maintained if the position they are redeployed to is at a lower rate and they will receive EBA increases as they apply.

NBN BULLYING

We have reported previously that the Fair Work Commission found that our member had been bullied by his manager. NBN appealed part of the Decision and argued that the Decision should be overturned, The Appeal was heard by a Full Bench this week. The decision has been reserved, and we will report the outcome when it is known.

TELSTRA FIBRE GRADINGS

We are having an internal review of the situation this week. We have about 30 members on our list (who have responded to our survey). We expect to move forward with the matter this week.

TELSTRA REDUNDANCIES

We have attended several meetings this week to hear more on the recent redundancies. The breadth of the work areas make this difficult to understand. So we rely on you to raise matters with us if concerned.

AUS POST NATIONAL JCC

We have arranged for a national Consultative Council meeting for this week. The agenda items we have submitted are: Electrical Licensing across all states, Appropriate qualifications for techs, Be a friend initiative, AP Way Change management initiative, Teams based allowance entitlements and Serious incidents/accidents and their investigation

ASBESTOS IN WORKPLACES

Our former Secretary (Lee Walkington) has provided us with this timely warning. Please contact us if you have any concerns about asbestos.
News that Telstra is cleaning up its buildings and removing carpet from foyers and office areas is a major cause for alarm. Most buildings with carpet installed in the 1970 and 80s and earlier are potentially likely to contain deadly asbestos dust in the underlay. According to former ABC journalist, Matt Peacock's book, "Killer Company" which detailed the union led campaign against asbestos manufacturer James Hardy, asbestos fibre was regularly shipped from its mines in WA and NSW to its local manufacturing sites in hessian bags. These bags were then on-sold by James Hardy for reuse by others and many tens of thousands of the dust riddled bags were pulped and used extensively in the manufacture of carpet underlay and mattress filling.
There is no known safe limit for exposure to asbestos dust and it claims the lives of several hundred Australians each and every year.

While many of the pulped jute bags used in the manufacture of carpet underlay were sourced from the transporting of wool and wheat a considerable portion of the bags used, perhaps as many as one in 30 bags used in carpet underlay were sourced from asbestos transportation once "cleaned", according to Robert Vojakovic of the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia in an interview with Matt Peacock in 2006. While there is no certainty that asbestos dust is present in all underlay, the chance of asbestos contamination at a considerable number of sites is cause for concern. It is not only death from the lung disease mesothelioma, which has no known cause other than exposure to asbestos in all its forms, but asbestosis and cancers of the lung and of other organs are known to be caused by exposure to asbestos fibres.

Unsafe home and office renovations are now a major and silent killer of people from all walks of life. The timeline between exposure and death can be up to a few decades and the partners and children of the prime persons exposed to asbestos are also among the victims with many eventually dying painfully due to contact with contaminated clothing and secondary exposure to the dust.
Don't take chances! If old carpet is being removed at your workplace and dust is present then demand the hazard is dealt with first before continuing to work there. If you think that you may have been exposed to asbestos in your work environment then you are well within your rights to have that workplace tested and cleared of any potential hazard and to have a record of exposure noted in your employment file. Be safe not sorry.