Communication Workers Union

The CEPU is conducting a ballot of all of its Telstra members who are eligible to be covered by a new EA in the company.

Beginning Wednesday 26 May, members will receive ballot papers together with material relating to Telstra’s latest offer. Members need to have their vote in by 12 noon on Friday 11 June.

If members do not receive a ballot paper and believe they are entitled to vote they should contact the Branch office – T&S - 9349 4411 or P&T 9600 9100

Members need to be clear that this is not the final, formal ballot on the proposed EA itself. Such a vote would be conducted by Telstra in accordance with the Act, (or by the AEC on its behalf), and would include all affected employees, both union and non-union members.

This ballot is designed to tell your CEPU negotiators whether to accept or reject Telstra’s latest offer, including the four 2% wage rises being offered over the proposed two year agreement.

The ballot materials members will receive provide further details of the agreement and outline the case for and against accepting the offer.

At its meeting of 10^th May, however, the Communications Division Executive resolved to recommend members vote NO in this ballot.

While Telstra has said that their latest EA pay offer is again their final one, EA employees in the company are now and will, under this offer, continue to be thousands of dollars behind employees on ECAs. Divisional Executive cannot recommend that members accept this situation.

Where to after the ballot?
If the majority of members vote YES in the ballot the CEPU will advise Telstra that the union accepts the pay offer and, subject to any final fine tuning of the EA document, will recommend a YES vote in the formal employee ballot.

If members vote NO, the CEPU will call on them to escalate our campaign for a better EA outcome.

For its part, Telstra has indicated that it may take this wage offer off the table if it is rejected by the union.

OUR ACTION CONTINUES
Despite the consultative survey, our action to win a better deal continues.

The start-of-day/end-of-day unpaid overtime bans are being applied in all states and are having significant impact on Telstra management’s productivity and work programming. The pressure must be kept on.

OT & RECALL/START (SOD) & END OF DAY (EOD)
Overtime bans and recall bans continue to apply on a daily basis and includes weekends and public holidays - further notices regarding these bans and stoppages for the upcoming days have been forwarded to Telstra. These bans are legal, protected action.

As a further reminder, the ban relating to unpaid overtime continues to apply to the unpaid "log on" prior to normal start time as well as work functions outside normal paid hours.

For example members that would normally log on at 7.30 am with an "on site" start time of 8.00 am, should commence log on to start work at 8.00 am then travel to first job.

Other members in areas such as call centres, where Telstra try to force them into a ready situation prior to their start time should also apply this action. They also should be logging on at their actual start time.

END OF DAY (EOD)
No function other than actually driving home (to a maximum of 30 minutes ) past the normal paid knock-off time should be performed at the end of day. Members who would normally clear work during normal hours should continue to do so, However members should not perform any other out of hours function including the "submit" function for last ticket of work.

End of day functions that are covered by the ban on paid & unpaid O/T include: dropping off or picking up stores at depot, filling out paper work, any computer related functions including shutting it off , phone log off, etc.

Members should simply upon returning home, park the vehicle, turn it and their phone off. There is no need to notify anybody as the GPS will already know that the vehicle has been parked at its normal location.

Members simply apply the overtime ban from the time they finish driving until they log on again at their start time.

If managers try to harass you with phone calls overt the SOD and EOD, either on your home phone or mobile let us know and we will take them on in Fair Work Australia over an adverse action against employees exercising their work place rights.

The overtime and recall bans are having a significant effect also, driving down productivity halting or stalling, major transformation and other projects.

OTHER ACTION
The paid & unpaid OT should also be applied to performing other functions outside the normal hours of duty such as, washing and cleaning vehicles, training, etc.

Any problems with these bans should be notified to the branch office, please contact either John Ellery 0419 823 580 or Len Cooper 0438 389 302.

STOPPAGE ACTION
Key areas of our membership are taking stoppage action and/or are planning stoppage action. Some members in Next Generation (NGO) are on strike indefinitely at present.

In addition, there will be short stoppages to enable members to support the public protests and rallies.

PUBLIC RALLIES AND PROTESTS
Public rallies and protests are taking place in various states (Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, West Australia and more to come). These will continue outside T Life shops and various other Telstra establishments.

The Telstragreed.com.au website has now been established and will serve as our campaign website for the next period.

Whilst the site is still being built, it is now “on air” and being built on.

There are postcards to send to David Thodey and a public leaflet “read before you buy” to hand out to customers and the public.

This is all national action so don’t be divided by Telstra management claims that you are the only one taking action.

Regardless of the outcome of the ballot the fight against discriminatory pay rates will continue.

If you vote no, then we step up the campaign.

if you vote yes, the battle against discrimination will be put off until another day.

WELFARE FUND
We still need to give assistance to our members who are going out on strike. Please give to the Welfare Fund to help them to keep going. They are fighting for us all.

The details of the welfare fund payment process are as follows:
Direct debit through your financial institution or EFT to: CEPU Welfare Fund. BSB: 063262 Ac No: 10454772
Cheque or money order made out to CEPU Welfare Fund and posted to: CEPU Welfare Fund, 1/139 Queensberry Street, Carlton South 3053.
Credit Card over the phone to the Branch - 03 9349 4411

There is no BPAY facility

To Apply To Claim On The Fund
If you wish to make a claim to help with any hardship being experienced, please contact JOHN ELLERY Branch Assistant Secretary, in the first instance: 0419 823 580