Unions warn over Telstra wage cuts
Reports that Telstra management aims to effectively cut the wages of staff by 15% highlight the need for the Rudd Government to urgently introduce new IR laws that restore workers’ rights to bargain collectively say unions.
New leaked documents reveal Telstra’s managers believe that the industry-leading pay standards negotiated over many years through collective bargaining and union representation are too high.
The document lays out in detail a plan by Telstra management to sideline unions and cut the pay of thousands of field technicians, lines workers and other key staff through new job contracts.
The company aims to hold workers’ pay to below the rate of inflation, effectively cutting its wages bill by almost 15% over four years -- for the average technician this would amount to a cut in real wages over time of $7300 a year.
The documents also suggest that Telstra management is planning to reduce its wages bill further by slashing call centre jobs and outsourcing work to companies that pay staff 50% less.
“This report reveals a short-sighted wage grab that jeopardises both the livelihoods of Telstra employees and the retention of a skilled workforce essential to Australia’s future economic growth,” said ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence.
Mr Lawrence said that with Federal Parliament to resume tomorrow (Tuesday) after the long winter recess, unions are urging the government to quickly introduce legislation that will bury Work Choices forever.
“The message I’ll be taking to Canberra this week is that Australian workers voted to get their rights back and now it’s time for politicians to deliver,” Mr Lawrence said. "Telstra is a prime example of big employers who are behaving badly towards their staff and thumbing their nose at the Rudd Government's co-operative industrial relations policy. We expect to see new laws introduced into the Parliament very soon to scrap all of Work Choices and replace it with a fair and balanced industrial relations system.Workers want to have genuine collective bargaining rights, the right to be represented by a union, protection from unfair dismissal and a strong independent umpire."