Telstra bid to bypass unions

TELSTRA has sidestepped unions by initiating direct talks with staff on a non-union agreement after the collapse of negotiations with union leaders and the ACTU.

The head of Telstra's wholesale division, Kate McKenzie, wrote to the division's 750 employees yesterday to tell them talks would begin in a week on a new non-union deal.

The move led to an immediate threat from the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union of strikes after the existing agreement expired on September 5.

CEPU secretary Len Cooper said: "Either we get back to the negotiating table or there will be a dispute with the full range of actions -- strikes, industrial bans and whatever else would disrupt the operations of the company."

The move to end union influence in Telstra Wholesale, which sells access to the telco's terrestrial and mobile networks to other retailers, appears to be a trial run for establishing non-union deals across the company's 32,000 employees.

Ms McKenzie said Telstra Wholesale had a low level of union membership, and discussions with the union were going nowhere when the company broke off talks recently.

She said staff had expressed an interest in a non-union deal so the company decided to offer one to those on the existing enterprise agreement or expired Australian Workplace Agreements. Her letter tells staff that their redundancy pay, parental leave, annual leave, long-service leave, penalties and hours of work would be guaranteed under the non-union deal, although there is no mention of any pay increase.

"Any proposed agreement would be subject to a ballot," the letter says.

Mr Cooper warned that workers would be shortchanged under the proposed deal in their wages and conditions, and said the company would struggle to win over the required 50per cent of the workforce. Telstra's most recent attempt to establish a non-union deal in its call centres was rejected by 80per cent of staff.

ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence condemned Telstra's move, accusing the company of rushing to try to establish a non-union deal before it was forced to negotiate under new workplace laws.

"Telstra is taking advantage of a narrow window of opportunity before new laws come into existence under which an independent umpire can order employers to negotiate in good faith with worker representatives," Mr Lawrence said.

"This is the same strategy Telstra pursued earlier this year when it knew AWAs were about to be banned, and using morally dubious tactics, made a final push to sign 15,000 workers on to individual contracts.

"Telstra is deliberately seeking to side-step the legitimate right of workers to be represented in negotiations over their pay and conditions."