Unions and Telstra have battled for months in the Australian Industrial relations Commission (AIRC) and the Federal Court over Telstra's plan to replace outgoing Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) with a new standard contract in its wholesale and service advantage divisions.
Last weekend, the AIRC ordered Telstra to put the new deal to the vote with workers.
The company announced in a statement on Tuesday that eligible employees voted against the agreement "by a narrow margin".
"Employees will remain on the terms and conditions of the current Telstra enterprise agreement," the statement said.
ACTU assistant secretary Chris Warren said the vote was a "stunning rebuff" for Telstra.
"Telstra workers have been treated very badly by the company's management and it is no wonder they have rejected this non-union job contract," he said.
"Telstra employees have been denied their right to union representation and subjected to almost every trick in the book by management.
"The company's job contract would have turned new employees into second-class workers ( SLAVES) with reduced entitlements to paid overtime, no guarantees of annual pay rises and reduced redundancy."
But Telstra denied ( no one EVER admits ) disadvantaging workers and accused unions of turning the contract issue into a means to influence the federal government's industrial relations policies.
"The ACTU and unions have clearly used this process to pressure the government on policy and, as a result, they have created significant industrial relations uncertainty" a spokesman said.
This has already been reported here :
http://corpau.blogspot.com/2008/09/telstra-wages-fraud.html
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