Telstra spy plan runs of the road

Date: 04 September 2006

Telstra have locked themselves in a do or die battle with their field workforce over the deployment of GPS (Global Positioning Systems) in Telstra vehicles. Earlier this year Telstra entered into a contract with another US based company with possible links to the new US management, called Atroad. The contract is worth milions of dollars.

Atroad supplies mobile resource management services that enable an employer to see where the mobile workforce is at all times. Telstra tried to rollout GPS without any regard to state law. They did not advise the field workers that in some states they had the right to refuse consent. Thousands of Telstra field workers nationally have advised Telstra that they do not consent to this intrusive surveillance into their working lives.
Telstra are now trying to gain 'consent' from Telstra field workers in one on one briefings. The CEPU has seen a confidential document provided to Telstra managers suggesting a 'conciliatory approach' to workers in order to gain their consent to installation and use of GPS. In a very slick PR exercise, the document concentrates on the pluses of the GPS system. It does not address any of the very real OH&S and Privacy concerns of CEPU members. The document details a script that managers are supposed to adhere to when addressing concerned workers one by one until they give consent.

Telstra have already sacked the workers that were skilled in the previous despatch system, last week they started training new workers on the new US based system. Telstra have revealed that data collected by the new system will be held in data centres in the US until Telstra establish a data centre here in Australia. The CEPU are unclear if that includes customer data or just data collected about employees.

Telstra employees are vehemently opposed to the use of GPS. Telstra already has a system that enables them to know where field staff are at all times. This new system represents a whole new intrusion into their lives, including monitoring the workers in their own personal time.

The CEPU is outraged by this latest attempt by Telstra to try and flout the law and subject an already demoralised workforce to whole new levels of unnecessary micro-management.

The CEPU also believes that the US based system will lead to further job losses amongst the highly skilled field workforce, losses that the ailing network can ill afford. The GPS system used by British Telecom, enabled the company to shed hundreds of Team Leader jobs as well as field based workers.

For further information

Contact:	Len Cooper
Union:	CEPU Victorian branch
Phone:	03 9387 3703
Contact Mobile:	0438 389302
WWW:	http://www.cepu.asn.au

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