Telstra has backed down from a fight in court over the legality of its employee collective agreement ballots, despite showing defiance right up to the day of the hearing.
Telstra has backed down from a fight in court over the
legality of its employee collective agreement ballots, despite
showing defiance right up to the day of the hearing.
People are voting down this non-union deal left, right and
centre. They've kicked the tyres and know they're getting a
lemon.
Ed Husic, national president CEPU
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) had lodged an application
in the Federal Court to prevent Telstra from going ahead with a
ballot on an employment agreement in its Consumer Marketing and Channels division. The
application was set to be heard on Monday.
The company has been holding ballots with small numbers of
employees since an agreement, offering 12.5 per cent pay increases
and up to 7.5 per cent in performance-based bonuses, was put to its
Wholesale and Service Advantage divisions as a whole and was voted
down by workers in September last year. The unions believe that
this so-called "divide and conquer" strategy is taking away
employees' ability to make an informed decision.
The unions asked Telstra on Friday to stop the Consumer
Marketing and Channels ballot because employees had no "reasonable
opportunity to decide". Telstra wrote to the union on Monday that
its claims were "without foundation".
Yet when Telstra turned up at the court on Monday, it said it
would withdraw the agreement in question. According to the union,
the withdrawal supported its argument that the ballot process was
flawed and undemocratic.
The unions were using the agreement as a test case under the
Workplace Relations Act to probe the lawfulness of Telstra's HR
strategy of offering agreements to small groups of employees around
the country.
The question, according to CPSU counsel Josh Bornstein, partner at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, was whether putting the agreement to small groups of employees denied them a reasonable opportunity to decide whether to accept the offer.
"Even more fundamentally, the case raises questions about what
is meant by a collective agreement under federal law," Bornstein said in
a statement. "The strategy adopted by Telstra completely deprived
the process of any collective input from the employees."
Telstra did not reply to requests for comment.
The strategy adopted by Telstra completely deprived the process of any collective input from the employees
CPSU lawyer Josh Bornstein
Since Telstra's decision to withdraw the agreement, the union was
considering its options, CPSU national president Louise Persse
said.
The unions had already
approached the Australian Electoral
Commission with concerns that the ballots were not being held
correctly. The commission
agreed, but Telstra laid any blame at the commission's own door, saying it
always met the commission's standards.
Telstra no longer uses the commission for the ballots, having
instead commissioned privately owned share registry firm Link Market Services.
Unionised employees have been
striking since December to force
Telstra to come back to the negotiating table after it walked away
from talks in July last year. Ed Husic, national president of the
Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union (which works towards
the same goal as the CPSU), said that although Telstra's strike had been put on
hold in areas which might affect the bushfires, there were other
isolated areas where the union could continue.
His union will also be exploring legal avenues to further the
cause, he said. He believed Monday's action was a success. "It
helps the employees who were going to vote on a dud deal," he said.
"People are voting down this non-union deal left, right and
centre. They've kicked the tyres and know they're getting a
lemon."
