FWC to conciliate Telstra award modernisation issues
The CWU appeared before the Fair Work Commission (FWC) on Wednesday 23 July in relation to progress in developing a modern enterprise award to cover Telstra employees.
The conference was held before Deputy President Smith who heard a summary of the differences between Telstra and the Telstra unions and agreed to set a timetable for conciliation.
The CWU and other Telstra unions have been discussing the new award with Telstra for over 18 months and have still not reached agreement on some fundamental issues.
For this reason, the unions proposed that the FWC be approached to see if it would offer guidance on these questions.
Unresolved issues include:
- Whether or not all Telstra employees will be covered by the award. (Telstra wants Retail employees excluded.)
- The ongoing relevance of the current Redundancy Award (as opposed to the former Telstra Redundancy Agreement which now forms part of the Enterprise Agreement).
- Some aspects of hours of work provisions (but not the 36 ¾ hour week, which is agreed).
- Personal leave entitlements.
While the FWC will eventually decide these matters, it is obviously better if an agreed position can be put to the Full Bench by the parties concerned.
For this reason, the CWU will be continuing to try to reach agreement on these matters wherever possible.
