Call Centres

Interim Award for contract call centre workers

The ASU, as part of the ACTU coordinated Call Centre campaign, has secured redundancy benefits, a disputes handling procedure, union access and traineeship entitlements for 5,000 employees of the largest contract call centres. This is as a result of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission approving the making of the Contract Call Centre Industry (Interim) Award 2002.

Immediate beneficiaries will be 75 employees of Pracom who are set to lose their jobs in a matter of weeks.

Other contract call centres in the Award with ASU membership include: Salmat; Salesforce, UCMS & Teletech.

The interim award kick starts a broader claim for a comprehensive contract call centre award for minimum wages and conditions of employment.

The Commission has given the ASU and employers three months to conciliate further over a permanent award.

The ASU has for a number of years campaigned for regulation of this growth area of employment where employees are generally exploited through non-union employment arrangements.