28
Aug

Give Telstra workers the democratic right to negotiate a collective agreement

Telstra workers should be given the choice to have their unions negotiate a collective agreement rather than have the company’s managers push a non-negotiable job contract upon them. Unions have today applied to the industrial umpire, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, to help end the dispute with the company by conducting a ballot of Telstra employees about whether they want

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6
Aug

Here’s the MoU

It is clear that Telstra staff, whether Union members or not, are in desperate need of some clarity about what is going on. You have been inundated with internal communications from Telstra that are incorrect. One of the things we hope to do here is publish all our documents and correspondence from now on – so you can see for

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4
Aug

Telstra HR: out on a limb

Official advice from the Department of Workplace Relations on Friday should compel Telstra Human Resources to go back to the bargaining table. Read the full bulletin here. We have also written to Telstra on this matter today, you can read the full letter here. Background On July 17, Telstra Human Resources cancelled Enterprise Agreement talks.Their ambush stranded thousands of employees

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4
Aug

Telstra MoU lawful: Management should abide by umpire’s ruling and resume talks

Telstra Human Resources should abide by a ruling of the federal Department of Workplace Relations and immediately resume talks with unions about a new enterprise agreement. The department has found that a draft memorandum of understanding for a constructive relationship proposed by the unions would not put Telstra in breach of the national construction code. ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence says

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21
Jul

Telstra’s secret IR documents

Telstra management’s secret IR strategy reveals unethical treatment of workers: unions call for talks Official company documents revealed today show a secret strategy used by Telstra management to get 15,000 employees onto Australian Workplace Agreements ahead of a ban on them which came into force in March.   The secret training kit obtained by a newspaper lays out a plan

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19
Jul

Deputy PM questions Telstra’s actions

The Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has questioned Telstra’s decision to pull out of EA talks with the unions – and also questioned Telstra’s claim that their tender for the NBN project might be affected by a collective agreement.  “The National Code and Guidelines for the Construction Industry do not in any way prevent a company subject to their operation

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19
Jul

Rub your eyes – it’s true

Yesterday, Telstra decided it didn’t want to talk to the unions anymore about an enterprise agreement affecting up to 32,000 employees.A day later – after saying they would no longer talk – Telstra’s HR managers launched a website called “Now We’re Talking.” Now, that is “irony”… Just when you thought things couldn’t get more bizarre, Telstra prove that in their

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18
Jul

Telstra walks away: a member’s view

The email below was written by a new member.  This member took their concerns about Telstra’s bizarre actions straight to Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.  We don’t need to editorialise about the corporation’s actions – here’s a view straight from an employee’s perspective: Dear Julia,   My name is (J) and I write to comment in relation to Telstra Corp

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18
Jul

Telstra: improving the relationship is vital

There’s been a lot of drama mixed in with specially coded words following Telstra’s HR managers decided to steer the EA talks towards a brick wall.Telstra managers are wandering the country claiming we want to push agreements that they describe as “illegal” and are “side agreements” that threaten their ability to secure the NBN contract. The Deputy Prime Minister knocked

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17
Jul

Telstra backs off from EBA talks: denies choice to employees

The move by Telstra HR managers to call off  Enterprise Agreement talks puts at risk the future pay and job conditions of around 32,000 Telstra workers. Telstra workers should be very disappointed with the approach being taken by the company’s Human Resources managers. Calling off talks at such an early stage of negotiations is not at all helpful. In fact

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