WorkChoice exploits regional workers

Date: 21 July 2007

National Secretary: Stephen Jones

The Community and Public
Sector Union (CPSU) today strongly condemned labour hire firm Excelior for using
the Howard Government's WorkChoices laws to exploit workers at its Bendigo (Vic)
and Robina (Gold Coast) call centres.

Excelior took over the running of these telecommunications call centres from AAPT in May of this year. 

Excelior has secretly registered workplace agreements under the WorkChoices amendments to the Workplace Relations Act. The impact for new employees has been that they have been forced to accept much lower pay and conditions to do the same job as ex AAPT employees sitting next to them.  

The new employees receive reduced pay rates, no paid maternity leave, reduced redundancy entitlements, reduced overtime rates and no leave loading*.

"Excelior has used the Howard Government's IR laws to directly attack workers and their families," said CPSU National Secretary Stephen Jones. "Excelior was hailed as the saviour of regional jobs but instead has chosen to exploit its employees and has let down the Bendigo and Gold Coast communities.

 "This clearly demonstrates why these draconian laws must be changed," said Mr Jones. "All workers need to consider their rights at work when voting in this year's election."  

For comment Stephen Jones on 0417 261 152

For Background Paul Girdler on 0418 331 369

No paid maternity leave for Excelior workers
(CPSU bulletin 12 July, 2007)

After doing further research into the alarming differences between the current AAPT and Excelior Agreements CPSU has discovered that yet another condition has been abolished.

The AAPT agreement provides for six weeks paid maternity leave in addition to the compulsory period of six weeks unpaid maternity leave as provided by the Workplace Relations Act  The Excelior Agreement provides only for the compulsory unpaid six weeks with no provisions for any form of paid maternity leave. Yet another example of Excelior's unprecedented attack on its workers' rights. 

Despite all new Excelior employees doing exactly the same work as their fellow ex AAPT employees, their pay and conditions are significantly reduced. The table below sets out the conditions and pay for all new Excelior workers and compares it with the current rates of pay and conditions of ex AAPT workers.  

All former AAPT workers are covered by the AAPT Certified Agreement until May 2008. After this the Certified Agreement will cease to exist. The Excelior "employee collective" agreement is valid until 24 April 2012. It is likely former AAPT workers will be forced onto this inferior agreement from next May unless all workers act together. A key first step in this process is for all workers not in the union to join now.                                      

There is no valid reason why Excelior could not have prepared an agreement for all new staff  and the union to consider containing the same provisions as the AAPT Certified Agreements. Instead they prepared and registered an inferior agreement in secret and gave the vast majority of Excelior employees no chance to consider it.

But the good news is that we can do something. We have enough time to organise and prepare ourselves, while focussing on building up membership so as a collective group of employees we will be in a strong position to bargain with management for decent pay and fair conditions for all staff at the Excelior call centre. But we can't do it on our own for each and every worker. Your union CPSU represents all Excelior workers and bargains for all members as a whole.

What can I do? The first step is you need to support yourself and your workmates by joining CPSU. You also need to talk to your colleagues and friends and explain to them the importance of joining the union. Get them to fill out the membership form attached or join securely online at https://web.cpsu.org/join. Union membership will need to be strong in order for us to pressure Excelior into providing the same pay and conditions as your ex AAPT counterparts. If you are a former AAPT employee, we will need to be strong to oppose any attempts to replace your current pay and conditions next year with the inferior Excelior ones.

For further information

Contact:	Stephen Jones (National Secretary)
Union:	CPSU - National Office
Phone:	0417 261 152

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