TEMPORARY OFFICE MANAGER

Members may have met Alice Piccolo if calling our office. Alice has been standing in for Theresa while Theresa has been on extended personal leave.

NBN SOD/EOD CASE

The claim for payment of Start of Day and End of Day work commenced last Thursday in the NSW Industrial Relations Court. The hearing was set for 2 days and we did not finish. All witnesses have been before the Court. Only submissions are left and these will be made on 17 July.

NBN WORKERS COMPENSATION CONEKT

We are interested in hearing from any members who have been injured at work at NBN and were managed by Conekt. Please contact me of Ken Hardisty via email with your phone number.

TZV SUPPORT EBA

We met with TZV this week for a whole day session. We were able to resolve many issues but a few big issues remain. The new structure, progression and translation are difficult and we remain apart. We will meet again this week.

OPTUS RETAILCO WORKERS COMPENSATION

Optus has advised us of an issue relating to workers' compensation for workers in Retailco. Some extracts from their letter are below. We will soon meet with Optus to seek more details. If any member has any problems with compensation please contact us by return email.

I am writing to notify you in relation to a change we have made regarding how we support our people employed by Optus Retailco Pty Ltd ('Retailco'), in the event of a workplace injury. After recently looking at our workers' compensation arrangements for Retailco, we have moved to state and territory based workers' compensation schemes. This is a change from the previous Comcare model.
Since Retailco was established in 2013, there was an understanding that all employees across both Optus Administration Pty Ltd and Retailco were covered by Optus' Comcare self insurance licence. Recently it has been identified that this may not be the case. As a result, Optus has moved to implement state and territory - based workers compensation schemes for Retailco employees while we continue to investigate and understand the coverage of the Comcare self insurance licence.
We have commenced a review of all previous Retailco workers compensation claims to ensure there has been appropriate compensation given to employees who have had made a claim that has been accepted and closed, rejected, or have a current active claim. Optus will communicate directly with employees of any outcomes from these reviews when they become known.
Furthermore, the Optus Retail Agreement also ensures that Retailco will pay the difference between the payments received under the worker's compensation legislation and the salary which would otherwise be paid to an employee up to a maximum of 52 weeks from the injury date.

OPTUS RETAIL EBA

We have concluded negotiations with Optus for a new EBA. We will be providing a summary shortly. The draft agreement will be circulated and put to staff for a vote.

MORE TELSTRA REDUNDANCIES

Any member who needs assistance following this announcement should contact our office.

This week, we announced the decision to make 10 roles redundant within our Transformations & Partnerships area of Telstra Enterprise. The changes represent a shift to simplify and modernize the Transformation & Partnerships function, moving from a more fragmented, operationally-driven structure to a streamlined, integrated model with clearer accountability and stronger alignment to current business priorities.