Call Centres

Big win for call centre workers

A Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), has handed down a decision which will make the Contract Call Centre Industry Award the minimum standard for call centre working conditions Australia wide.

The decision can be found on the AIRC website or alternative you can download it here.

This follows the recent decision of the AIRC to apply the award as the safety net benchmark for all employees of contract call centres and related labour hire companies in Victoria. The decision is a victory for the ASU and call centre unions who prepared for this case for nearly five years.

The major contract call centre employers vigorously opposed the award. The ASU represented its members with all these employers including Salesforce, TeleTech and Salmat. These employers wanted their own in-house awards and to continue with less regulated working conditions.

The AIRC rejected commission or incentive/ performance based pay, preferred by Salesforce, as being contrary to the concept of an award safety net. The employers' argument of requiring cheaper labour costs and more "flexibility" to remain "internationally competitive" was also rejected.

Most importantly the AIRC endorsed the 7 grade career classification structure and minimum rates of pay; spread of hours; penalty rates for Saturday/Sunday/Public Holiday/Shift work, overtime pay; 25% casual loading; 38 hour week and annual leave. The AIRC also rejected the employers' argument for a 12 hour, rather than 10 hour, daily limit.

Sadly the decision comes at a time when the Howard Federal Government intends to smash awards, gut the AIRC and force all call centre workers back on to less secure individual contracts.

The ASU will continue to fight for safer and more secure working conditions for call centre workers which is best achieved by award regulation underpinning the right for all call centre workers to bargain together.

$17 wage increases

The ASU recently updated the award by applying to insert the 2005 $17 national wage increase. The new rates of pay have been approved by the AIRC and applied from the 15 July 2005.

Allowances like Vehicle (48 cents /km); Meal ($9.40). and First Aid ($11.20) were also increased for cost of living.

Up to 2 years parental leave

Unions through the ACTU Work & Family leave case have also won new rights for workers that include up to 2 years of unpaid parental leave after the birth of a child and the right to request part time work.

The AIRC recognised that there were employers who would never accommodate the family responsibilities of their employees and that the award safety net should impose new minimum rights.

The AIRC has awarded the following new rights for employees that have caring responsibilities:

1. The right for employees to request up to 24 months unpaid parental leave after the birth of a child. This represents a doubling of the current 12 month entitlement.

2. The right for employees to request part-time work on their return to work from parental leave and before their children are at school.

3. A new Personal Leave entitlement that allows up to ten days of paid leave a year for the purpose of caring for family members or for family emergencies -- double the current five day provision.

4. A new right for all employees, including casuals, to take up to two days unpaid leave for family emergencies on each occasion such an emergency should arise.

5. A duty on employers to not unreasonably refuse an employee's request for extended parental leave or return to work part-time.

Stay Tuned: These parental leave rights will be inserted into the Contract Call Centre Industry Award soon.

Are you covered by the award?

Is your employer in the contract call centre industry and therefore effected by the award? If you are not sure you can check out the ASU website http://www.asu.asn.au/callcentre or email: jnucifora@asu.asn.au.