By Leo Wellin
An ominous silence from Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) officials has marked the end of the first stage of Telstra privatisation.
By November 17, after weeks of being tied up in working parties and negotiations over an enterprise agreement designed to deliver continued profits for Telstra, the CPSU "campaign" to defend pay and working conditions has become a monologue of "negotiations are continuing" and "watch this space".
In the latest negotiations on November 6, Telstra management remained firm on key issues such as abolishing flextime and moving to a rostered six-day ordinary working week. They upped the ante on penalty payments by proposing that permanent night shift and Saturday or Sunday work attract only a 15% allowance. Currently, shift workers in the national telemarketing centre, for instance, get loadings of 150% on Saturday and 200% on Sunday.
After months of talks, CPSU officials have admitted during report-back meetings that they "are not yet achieving real outcomes for members. Many issues have been referred to smaller groups for detailed consideration, but little is coming out of these."
Delegates' notes distributed at membership meetings state, "it appears that Telstra will attempt to maintain the facade of negotiating while really never moving on key issues".
Nonetheless, CPSU officials are still faithfully pursuing this strategy. A bulletin authorised by Michelle Bissett, telecommunications section secretary, states: "The CPSU, and other unions, are concentrating on positive initiatives in the negotiations. Telstra, however, seem committed to a program of radical change and have threatened to proceed with this change regardless of the outcomes of negotiations."
That is exactly what is happening. Already, Telstra has established a national debt collection centre in Melbourne and moved to region-based sales support, eliminating hundreds of jobs in the process. In the most understaffed area, the customer service centres — where up to 30% of calls are simply not answered — integrated voice recordings have been introduced with sophisticated call switching to enable Telstra to direct inquiries to contract staff working part-time.
While jobs have disappeared and sites such as the Rockhampton call centre have closed, new staff are being employed on contracts with irregular hours, early starts or late finishes, and a six-day week.
The CPSU leadership has made life easier for the Howard government and Telstra management during the Telstra float by not linking the privatisation with the push to cut wages and conditions, and by refusing to extend the industrial campaign beyond a 24-hour strike.