Telstra deal secures employee pay rise

After a 20-month-long battle between Telstra and its unions, employees have voted in favour of an enterprise bargaining agreement that will lead to an 8 per cent increase in wages over the next two years.

According to Len Cooper, Victorian branch secretary of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), a ballot held for both unionised and non-unionised Telstra employees yesterday saw 70 per cent of all employees respond, with 81 per cent voting in favour of the new agreement.

The deal sees employees receive a 4 per cent pay rise each year for the next two years, and secures a number of existing employment provisions for that period.

"When Telstra was privatised, there was a danger [employees would] lose the maternity leave provisions and the long-service leave provisions of the Commonwealth Act. They've been secured," Cooper told ZDNet Australia.

"The redundancy provisions that existed before have been improved so there's going to be more reliance on volunteers and job swaps in redundancy situations rather than forced redundancies in the first instance," he added. "There's some regulation and union involvement in how the whole performance management process works inside the company because there have been some real problems with that."

Cooper said police were still investigating the allegations that Telstra had listened in on conference calls with unionised staff.

In July, Telstra was reportedly re-examining its management structure in a move that was expected to lead to 330 senior staff cuts.

Telstra has been contacted for comment, but had not responded at the time of writing.