TeleTech staff on expired agreement

Date: 05 February 2004

Call centre staff at TeleTech International in Sydney and Moe, Victoria, will stop work next Monday 9th February to express their frustration at TeleTech's refusal to negotiate a new employment agreement.

Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) members at TeleTech's Moe site will take joint action with United Services Union (USU) members at the Pennant Hills site, Sydney.

"Staff have refused to accept sub-standard individual contracts," explained CPSU Organiser Hayden Jones, "so TeleTech has decided to punish them by leaving them on expired agreements and refusing to negotiate."

"We're talking about the biggest contract call centre in Australia, mainly doing outsourced work for Telstra, yet they are treating their employees with contempt," said Mr Jones.

"TeleTech are being completely unreasonable," said Mr Jones. "When it became clear that our members weren't going to accept individual contracts, TeleTech wrote to them with an ultimatum of 'take it or leave it'. The proposed contracts were withdrawn just prior to Christmas and TeleTech have done nothing since to address the situation."

USU President Michael Want said, "It is ridiculous that an employer can refuse to negotiate just because staff want a collective agreement. John Howard's legislation is stacked against low paid workers, they get no choice, no rights. These people are some of the lowest paid in Australia yet their jobs require significant skill and expose them to enormous pressure."

This not the first time TeleTech staff have had to resort to industrial action. Moe staff took industrial action in 2002 regarding pay problems and last December they stopped work to demand the resumption of agreement negotiations.

"Many of the conditions at TeleTech are below industry standards contained in the Contract Call Centre Award, which TeleTech is also resisting," said Mr Want." Issues that staff want addressed in an agreement and / or the Award include:
Decent pay increases well above CPI rates
Penalty rates
Duty to consult with employees about rostering preferences / changes
Reference to their union / any representative in the Dispute Resolution Procedure

STAFF WILL TAKE STOP-WORK ACTION ON MONDAY 9TH FEBRUARY, 12pm-1pm
Moe: 3 Ollerton Ave, Victoria
Pennant Hills: 423 Pennant Hills Rd, NSW

For comment, contact Hayden Jones (CPSU, Moe) on 0407 060 847, Michael Want (USU, Sydney) 0409 128 164

For further information

Contact:	Michael Want
Union:	United Services Union
Phone:	(02) 9265 8211
Fax:	(02) 9261 2265
Email:	united@usu.org.au
WWW:	http://www.usu.org.au

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed
by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW
[Credits] [Site Matters]