Overtime or emergency work?
If at first you don’t succeed…try again!
Late in 2014, the CWU had to notify the Fair Work Commission that it was in dispute with Telstra over the Emergency Duty provisions of the then Enterprise Agreement (EA).
The dispute arose because Telstra management at the Global Operation Centre (GOC) were calling people in from home to work additional hours and trying to pay them at overtime rather than Emergency Duty rates.
Now they are at it again!
The CWU has been contacted by members who have been called in from home to work extra hours before the normal start time of their shifts without being given prior notice during the previous period of ordinary hours work.
Then they’ve been told the additional hours would be paid as overtime, not Emergency Duty.
The current Telstra EA (clause 78) is quite clear on this point. If Telstra does not provide you with notice of the requirement to perform such additional hours during ordinary work hours ie prior to leaving work, then those additional hours must be paid at double time, with a minimum payment of 3 hours.
Telstra accepted this interpretation of the then current EA when the matter went before the Commission in early 2015. There has been no change to this provision in the new EA.
Members need to be vigilant and report any such attempts to pay overtime rates for emergency work to the CWU. Such actions are in breach of the EA.
