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Legal proceedings commenced
against Australia Post by your Union
Employees and their Union were informed of
Australia Post’s decision to consolidate the
National Customer Contact Centre network
from the current six (including Sydney) to
two locations in Brisbane and Melbourne.
Despite Australia Post’s obligations under
EBA6 to consult with the Union on any major
change affecting employees prior
to any decisions being made, management have
blatantly ignored this obligation and
continue to do so by attempting to steam
roll the process. A perfect example of this
inappropriate behaviour is the tight
deadlines that have been forced on employees
to complete the recently circulated
“Expressions of Interest” packs – forcing
staff to quickly make huge, possibly life
changing decisions, at a time of severe
financial uncertainty and insecurity.
The Union was only informed of this decision
at 16:55 on
20 May 2009,
as staff were being informed, without being
afforded any opportunity to mitigate the
effects on 181 employees with their
employment in Sydney alone.
Australia Post’s continued disregard for the
current enforceable EBA6 has turned the
lives and financial security of around 300
Australia Post working families upside down
despite harsh economic times.
Due to Australia Post’s continued display of
arrogance toward this issue, the CEPU
yesterday lodged a dispute notification with
the Australian Industrial Relations
Commission (AIRC).
The AIRC has now listed the matter for
urgent hearing on this dispute at the
request of the Union, which will take place
in
Melbourne
on Monday 15 June before Commissioner Smith.
Expressions of interest forms, where to from
here? – Don’t Complete EOI or Demand EOI be
returned!
Customer Contact Centre employees are
advised not to complete any expression of
interest documents despite the inappropriate
deadlines placed on these documents for
return by Management.
Customer Contact employees who have already submitted their
EOI documents to management are advised to
approach management for such EOI documents
to be withdrawn and returned to you.
Any employee pressured or threatened into
completing the documents should advise their
direct superiors that they are following
Union instructions and should contact the
CEPU as soon as possible to report this
inappropriate management behaviour.
If you require any further information,
please contact Branch President Susan
Sheather or Branch Official Nathan Metcher
on (02) 9893 7822
Do not fill in expressions
of interest forms
The CEPU is recommending that employees working in Customer
Contact Centres across Australia
DO NOT COMPLETE THE
EOI FORMS currently being issued by management.
Post senior management is hell bent in shutting down the
centres.
They did not consult properly, ahead of making the decision.
They are dragging the chain, delaying the provision of answers
to the questions the union has asked of management.
Yet they are deliberately racing out with redundancy expressions
of interest, designed to see who is interested in leaving Post
via a package.
This is aimed to help Post fast-track the closure of your
centre.
On Friday morning, a CEPU teleconference heard union secretaries
advise that members in the affected centres have told union
officials that members want to keep their jobs in the centres.
Members want the union to fight for them – and that’s what we’re
going to do.
We’ve written to Post
(click here to
view letter) rejecting the closures, telling them that they
must engage in meaningful consultation – and indicating they
haven’t justified why the centres should close.
Post claim that the closures are because of outdated technology
and costly property leases – and that they can be more efficient
by consolidating to two sites using improved technology.
Most other companies can upgrade technology in their centres
without slashing staff – so why can’t Post do the same?
What this is really about is Post cutting costs: managing the
same 6 million inbound calls a year … but with 25% less people.
Key Points
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- DON’T COMPLETE THE EXPRESSIONS OF
INTEREST – MANAGEMENT WANT TO
PIDGEON-HOLE YOU AND RUSH THE
CLOSURE OF YOUR CENTRE.
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We’re giving Post 48 hours to
respond to our legitimate demands
for information.
- We continue to work with other
stakeholders interested in saving
jobs in their state.
- The union’s absolute focus will be
to save jobs for union members who
want them. |
If you
require any further information, please contact Branch President
Susan Sheather or Branch Official Nathan Metcher on (02) 9893
7822.
CEPU writes to Australia Post following CCC
closure announcement
Australia Post: Celebrating 200 years by cutting more than
200 jobs
Tuesday 26 April 2009
The CEPU is vowing to fight the Customer Call Centre job cuts
announced last week.
After sitting on their hands for years, Australia Post announced
with lightening speed—in one afternoon—to cut 285 call centre
worker jobs across Australia with 181 of those in NSW alone.
And instead
of working with the Union to find other ways to approach the
restructuring of it’s call centre function
Post decided that now—in a recession—is the best time to throw its
employees out of their existing employment.
By making
this decision without any input and/or proper consultation from the
Union, Post has broken their own industrial agreements—agreements
that tell them, they must consult and give Unions a chance to
“influence their decision” -
before the decision is made.
This is the
current attitude that has gripped senior management in Australia
Post. We’ve written to Post letting them know exactly how we feel.
They have been recently hauled in front of courts about this and
measures have been taken to prevent them from making snap decisions
that affect the livelihoods of their employees.
What is especially disgraceful about this is that the Managing
Director of Post vowed to the Union in February this year that this
abysmal approach to consultation would stop. We ask members to
measure Post’s words against Post’s actions. It’s classic Australia
Post behaviour,
saying one thing and doing another.
Key Points:
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Post told
call centre workers about the job cuts at the same time we were
told.
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Post has been working on this plan for months, but withheld
information from the Union about what was happening.
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In February this
year, national officials of the Union asked Post what was
happening—Post replied that NO DECISION HAD BEEN MADE ABOUT
RATIONALISATION OF THE CENTRES.
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Two weeks
ago NSW Branch Officials asked management what was happening with
the call centre in Sydney and management pretended not to know about
anything that would be happening to the centre.
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Post’s letter to
the Union focussed on the good news about 137 jobs to be created in
Melbourne’s call centre. That is good news—but did they give any
information about the jobs of current employees? No. 285 jobs in
total will be cut.
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We’ve called for
urgent discussions to be held with Post about why it is doing this
now.
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The Union's
absolute focus will be to save jobs for Union members who want
them
181 positions at
the Sydney Customer Contact Centre have been identified as affected.
Employees should not engage in any discussion with management
regarding their intentions following this announcement without the
presence of a CEPU representative or Official.
Sydney
Customer Contact Centre workers who require assistance and/or advice
from the Union should join the CEPU as soon as possible, if they
have not already.
Fixed term contract workers who are not already CEPU members should
especially join as soon as possible to have a contract review
conducted by the Union to ensure Australia Post has abided by its
various contractual obligations, in particular its obligation to
offer permanent employment after certain periods of continuous fixed
term employment.
Sydney Customer Contact Centre employees can
join the
CEPU online by clicking here or can arrange their application by contacting Branch
President Susan Sheather or Branch Official Nathan Metcher on (02)
9893 7822.
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