Telstra was in the Federal Court last week to fight having to pay an employee's two fees for making an emergency call on a public holiday.
For the sake of $175 it's spending thousands — all to
deny an average Telstra worker his overtime pay
CEPU president Ed Husic
Telstra was appealing a decision by the Chief Industrial
Magistrate's court, which had said that one employee, Fred Todd, who was called
into work on Easter Monday to deal with an outage, was not only
entitled to double time for the call-out, but also the normal
payment he would have received for the public holiday. This meant that
he had been underpaid around $175.
"In my view, the decision of the respondent to call the
applicant in to perform duties on an emergency basis, entitled the
applicant to receive appropriate payment for the emergency work,
but did not disentitle him to receive payment for the day," the
magistrate ruled.
Justice Cowdroy, who heard the case in the Federal Court, has
reserved his judgement until a later date.
Telstra's main union, the Communications, Electrical and
Plumbing Union, has ridiculed the telco for spending so much money
as to appeal the chief magistrate's decision. "For the sake of $175 it's spending thousands — all to
deny an average Telstra worker his overtime pay," the union's
national president Ed Husic said in a statement.
"It's nothing short of a disgrace, where average working
Australians have to fight to get their fair pay, while a
corporation like Telstra splashes thousands on legal expenses and
millions on corporate perks. With Sol Trujillo earning something like $100 per minute, it
would have cost Sol more to give instructions in this matter,
leaving aside the international phone call cost," Husic said.
This is not about one individual
Telstra spokesperson
However, the magistrate said in his decision that the
court lacked jurisdiction to interpret the award, which he said was the job of a court such as
the Federal Court of Australia.
Telstra confirmed that it was in court seeking an interpretation of a clause
dealing with allowance under its award agreement. "This is not about
one individual," a spokesperson said, but declined to comment further on the case.
It appeared as though Telstra stood to lose more than $175 over the decision,
with the union issuing a release in November last year that urged other members to make claims.
"Given this win [in the chief industrial magistrate's court], we are entitled
to seek underpayments for the past six years," said the release. "If you have worked emergency duty on a public holiday during
the past six years, then we ask that you provide your branch with
this information."
The union has been busy with its continuing
strike to try and get the company to come back to the negotiating table and
create a union agreement for employees whose Australian workplace
agreements have expired.
