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Telecommunications contractor Service Stream has told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that its sub-contractors shouldn’t have the right to bargain collectively. The company is one of three – Visionstream, Silcar and Service Stream - which provide field workforce services to Telstra. Visionstream has also made a submission to the ACCC, backing up the Service Stream stance.



Last month, sub-contractors engaged by the company notified the ACCC that they wanted to bargain with Service Stream over contract prices. Because the law defines these workers as small business people rather than employees they are not able to bargain collectively without risking prosecution under the Trade Practices Act. The ACCC, however, has the power to exempt them from sections of that Act.



Service Stream has objected to its workers’ requests on a number of grounds, including the alleged involvement of the CEPU (Australian Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union) in the subbies’ application. The Howard Government, as part of its anti-union agenda, made such involvement illegal.



But Service Stream also says it is against the public interest for subbies to get higher contract prices as this would flow through to customers in the form of higher service charges. The impact of all this on Telstra customers, says Service Stream, would be “devastating”. But there’s a simple answer to this argument. Instead of hitting customers with higher charges, Service Stream and/or Telstra could just accept lower profits.

As reported previously by the CEPU, both companies reported profit growth this half-year. Telstra’s was up 13.4% and Service Stream’s was up a massive 97.6%