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Shame FileNo flexibility for a clericMr Howard, his Ministers and backbenchers continually boast about the flexibility of AWAs, but there was no flexibility offered by Stellar Call Centres Pty Ltd management even though they agreed previously, alleges NSW Local Government, Clerical, Administrative, Energy, Airlines and Utilities Union executive president Michael Want. In a letter to Unions NSW Mr Want wrote Graham Guy had been offered employment at Stellar at Hornsby on May 18 but on May 21 he was presented with an Australian Workplace Agreement that contradicted the offer he had accepted the previous week. He sought the hours he agreed with management on May 18, rather than having to be available seven days a week between the hours of 6am and midnight, in accordance with the AWA. Management refused to negotiate. Mr Guy is a Reverend who goes to Hillsong Church and also preaches in an independent church at Auburn. "It is essential for him to be involved in Christmas, Easter and other special occasions," Mr Want said. "It is very concerning for our society if multinational corporations like Stellar can determine that a person is not acceptable to them if they wish to participate in their church or other activities," he also said.
Talks on holdCity of Sydney Council has put on hold negotiations for a collective agreement with staff. NSW Local Government, Clerical, Administrative, Energy, Airlines and Utilities Union general secretary Ben Kruse has written to Unions NSW alleging senior management at Council have made clear their intentions that they will move Council into the federal WorkChoices system.
Redundancies and AWAsTelstra call centres are being closed across Australia, to be replaced by the establishment of four 'mega centres' in Sydney, Townsville, Perth and Melbourne where staff will be employed on AWAs, CEPU NSW Telecommunications and Services branch secretary Ian McCarthy has told Unions NSW.The closures, including at Newcastle and Wollongong, mean 326 redundancies in NSW and the ACT, Mr McCarthy said.
Fairness will have a costThe only way a worker can question a ruling on their AWA individual contract under the Howard Government's new 'fairness test' would be to lodge an appeal to the High Court, the ACTU reports.ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said on June 4: "This is ridiculous and shows how rushed, ill-considered and unfair the Government's WorkChoices industrial relations laws really are. "Anyone running a case in the High Court can expect to pay up to $25,000 in legal costs. But this is the only option open to workers under the Howard Government's WorkChoices IR [industrial relations] laws if they want more compensation for losing penalty rates, shift allowances, overtime loadings or other award conditions under an AWA individual contract," Mr Combet said. "Changes to the Government's WorkChoices industrial relations laws currently before Parliament require the Howard Government's new 'Workplace Authority' to rule whether each new AWA individual contract signed since May 7 this year passes the Government's new so-called 'fairness test'." Mr Combet said legal advice obtained by the ACTU showed the Government's WorkChoices laws provide no practical mechanism for workers to appeal against a decision of the Workplace Authority: "The only theoretical possibility for an employee aggrieved by a decision of the Workplace Authority Director that finds that an AWA individual contracts satisfies the fairness test is to make an application to the High Court for a Writ of Mandamus or other prerogative writ under Section 75(v) of the Constitution."
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