What have unions argued about AWA employees?
Many Telstra workers are employed on AWA individual contracts. With the change in law, there will be no further AWAs within Telstra. We hope in the coming months all Telstra staff will have a real choice to move off AWAs. Often signing an AWA was mandatory if you wanted a job with Telstra. In many cases, payrises, promotions, access to salary sacrificing and other benefits within the company, were limited to employees who agreed to sign. Many employees had little or no real choice but to sign an AWA. The Telstra unions have heard from many workers on AWAs. Taking into account your concerns, we used the EA discussions to tell management: * Telstra employees must be able to move off the AWAs without going backwards in pay and conditions. * Telstra should respect the right of AWA employees who choose to move off their AWA prior to the final expiry date. * Other concerns and issues raised by Telstra staff on AWAs must be considered as part of the EA negotiations.
