Telstra accused of super swindle

TELSTRA has been accused by unions of "swindling" up to 20,000 staff on individual employment contracts by cutting their take-home pay and using the money to cover a shortfall in superannuation contributions. Unions claim Telstra has been caught red-handed trying to disadvantage staff, after changes to superannuation laws that require employers to calculate superannuation based on a person's earnings, not base salary.

In a circular to staff, Telstra admits many on Australian Workplace Agreements and other types of individual contracts may suffer a reduction in "disposable take-home pay" following superannuation changes.

It confirms that these staff -- potentially up to two-thirds of Telstra's 32,000 workforce -- have previously had their superannuation calculated on "base salary" and not total earnings that include performance pay.

In this month's pay packets, Telstra will subtract 1 to 2 per cent of the employees' take-home pay and put the money into their super funds.

The company is complying with new federal government laws that require income such as performance pay to be included in calculating an employer's compulsory 9 per cent superannuation contributions.

ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said Telstra's decision to dip into workers' take-home pay was not illegal, but he questioned its ethics. He said Telstra's behaviour was a clear example of how its workers on individual contracts could be worse off compared with those on union-negotiated collective agreements.

Telstra admits workers on the union agreement will experience "little or no change going forward" because they are paid a standard salary almost identical to the new "Ordinary Time Earnings" definition used for calculating superannuation.

Mr Lawrence described Telstra's decision to deduct money from wages in the August pay period, backdated to July 1, as a "super swindle".

He said Telstra would argue that total remuneration remained unchanged. But unions believed workers would be disadvantaged when staff on base salaries of $40,000 and performance payments of $8000 incurred a $720-a-year wage cut.

"Literally weeks after management mounted a blitz to sign 15,000 employees on to AWAs, many of these Telstra workers will now receive a nasty surprise," Mr Lawrence said.

The Rudd Government abolished AWAs earlier this year but some companies such as Telstra beat the deadline by rushing to sign-up employees to five-year agreements.

The ACTU is in a protracted dispute with Telstra over negotiations for about 10,000 employees who remain on union agreements.

The Government yesterday dodged responsibility for any wage cuts for workers, and declined to comment on cuts in take-home pay for Telstra staff.

A spokeswoman for Superannuation Minister Nick Sherry said the changes related to laws introduced by the previous government in 2004. She said most employers had made the transition long before the July 1 cut-off, and meeting the requirement was a matter for negotiation between employers and workers.

Telstra spokesman Martin Barr said the company was affected like many others and must comply with the law.

He said employees were notified in advance, and the take-home pay of a majority of Telstra staff would be unaffected.

When asked, he would not confirm how many would be affected.

AustralianIT 1 Aug 2008

Telstra is also responsible for an estimated $16.5 MILLION (PER ANNUM) fraud against its contractors, a matter that was declined to be taken by SLATER & GORDON, because they were TOO BUSY and it was NOT in their financial interest to pursue.