Union seeks protections for postal workers on marriage survey
Your Union has called on Australia Post to clarify your rights and responsibilities during the upcoming Same Sex Marriage postal survey.
CEPU Communications Division National Secretary Greg Rayner has written to Australia Post seeking discussions around concerns associated with the delivery of ‘unaddressed mail’ as part of the process.
As the Union representing postal workers, the CEPU will not advocate any opinion on the substantive issue of the postal survey.
We believe this is a sensible, appropriate and necessary step to ensure CEPU members employed by Australia Post aren’t compromised in their role in upholding the integrity of the survey.
But while the CEPU is not taking sides, we are concerned about the lack of clarity around the conduct of the survey and the associated campaign process. For example, Australia Post has the right to refuse to deliver unaddressed mail deemed to be offensive – our members need to know what this actually means.
We also need Australia Post to confirm that members will have protections if they have issues with distributing certain campaign material on account of genuinely held beliefs.
We are conscious that the topic of Same Sex Marriage may be a highly sensitive and passionate one for many of our members and it is extremely disappointing that some media outlets have attempted to politicise what is purely an industrial matter for CEPU postal members.
This postal survey has been ill-conceived and CEPU postal members are being asked to play a key role in its hasted implementation. However, our members do their jobs extremely well and there is no reason to suggest a waiver of that dedication when undertaking duties associated with this process.
The least they deserve, though, is clarity around their legal rights and obligations.
We will keep postal members informed as discussions with Australia Post on this matter progress.
