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After the company’s second legal defeat in one week, Telstra management should now back down on its failed Work Choices strategy, sit down with unions and discuss a better pay offer to staff, say unions.



The Federal Court has dismissed an application by Telstra under the Workplace Relations Act to restrain comments by the ACTU and unions before a vote next week on a non-union job contract for about 380 of its employees.



The company pay offer will turn new employees into second class workers with reduced entitlements to paid overtime, no guarantees of annual pay rises and reduced redundancy. The non-negotiable pay offer would also severely curtail employees’ rights to meet with union representatives. The unions’ court victory follows a previous rebuff for Telstra earlier in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.