Telecommunications
CEPU obtains extension of industrial action order
(28 July, 2009): The CEPU has successfully applied to the new industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia, to have the outcome of the previous protected action ballot recognised.
Members will be aware that under Labor’s original legislative package, protected industrial action that was authorised under the Howard Government’s laws was not going to be legal after 1 July, when the Fair Work Act came into force.
This would have meant that the CEPU would have had to conduct another costly and time-consuming ballot of Telstra members if it wanted to take any further industrial action in pursuit of a fair Enterprise Agreement.
Fortunately, the CEPU was successful in getting amendments to the legislation so that unions involved in industrial action campaigns before 1 July could have them extended after that date. However, unions have to apply for such extension by 28 July.
The CEPU made the application to meet this cut-off date, not because EA negotiations with Telstra are going badly or have stalled.
The application is a precaution which will keep members’ options open in the event that a satisfactory agreement with Telstra cannot be reached.
The union remains optimistic, however, that the good faith bargaining process, to which it is committed, will produce an agreement that protects members’ conditions and meets their expectations.