Australian Services UnionVictorian Private Sector Branch

ORGANISEUnion News for delegates and workplace representatives

Organise Issue 7, October 2012 ASU Victorian Private Sector Branch, L1, 117 Capel Street North Melbourne 3051

October 2012 Edition: Authorised and printed by Ingrid Stitt, Branch Secretary ASU Victorian Private Sector Branch, 117 Capel Street North Melbourne 3051

The Australian Services Union and the Finance Sector Union have jointly launched a report into services offshoring and its impact on the Australian services industry. Research commissioned by the unions shows that Australia has lost 80,000 services jobs in the past four years to offshore providers.

The research also predicts that Australia will continue to lose up to 20,000 jobs from the service sector each year without government intervention.

The occupations most affected by offshoring include general clerks, specialist clerks including legal, bank workers, call centre agents and ICT professionals. In the past year, ASU workplaces affected by offshoring have included Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar, Vertex, EnergyWatch and others. Clerks in small business are particularly vulnerable to ‘Business Process Outsourcing’ firms.

“The concern for Australia is this: If businesses offshore these jobs to save a few dollars in the short term, and Australian jobs are lost, then we’re also losing opportunities to develop skills and experience, and undermining our capacity to participate in the global services economy into the future” said Branch Secretary Ingrid Stitt.

“The service sector employs more Australians than any other, and yet we’re doing nothing to secure the long-term viability of these jobs”.

Beyond the loss of quality, skilled services jobs, offshoring represents a privacy threat through the dissemination of Australian consumers’ private data offshore. Firms offering customer service from offshore locations may offshore customer data at the same time, and place this data beyond the protection of Australian Privacy Law. Transaction information, personal details, and even employment records are potentially put at risk.

ASU and FSU members presented the report—“Offshore and Off Work”—to Government Ministers last week and are calling on the government to defend service industry jobs.

ASU calls on government to protect service jobs

Union delegates present the report to Industry and Innovation Minister Greg Combet

“It will decimate the IT industry in Australia. There won’t be a job

for my son in IT because of the cheap labour that’s available

offshore.” - Christine

“Large commercial law firms are offshoring discovery of documents,

word processing, IT and human resources; they’re all done offshore.”

- Vicki

“It’s definitely a very vulnerable situation when you live in a

regional area, because you don’t have a big pool of employment

options.” – Serah-Jane

The ASU has found that most workers are unaware of how offshoring could affect them, until it’s too late.

Our research indicates that ASU occupations are amongst the most at risk of offshoring - even in small businesses.

Cloud computing has opened the door to offsite administration and clerical work that can be performed from anywhere, and jobs that were considered permanently face-to-face are now being lost offshore.

ASU members in airlines, call centres, logistics, legal, and administration have all witnessed offshoring.

We need to act collectively as a union to stop losing our jobs offshore.

But offshoring can’t affect my job...

Report findings

• Morethan80,000servicesectorjobs have moved offshore sincepreviousreport

• With more than 20,000 jobsmoving offshore each year wewould expect between 700,000 and 1 million jobs to move off-shoreinthenextthreedecades

• Actionisneededtoaddressservicesectoroffshoringcrisisandboostcompetitive position ofAustralianserviceindustries.

-OffshoreandOffwork2012 ASU members rely on their union to protect against offshoring. Together, we can protect service sector jobs!

SECURE JOBS

SECURE DATA

TIME FOR ACTION!Follow us on social media for updates about the campaign.

facebook.com/asuvic

@ASU_Organise

Talk to ASU members about offshoring

Email your story of offshoring to ebyrne@asupsvic.org

Each year, Australia loses

worth of office jobs offshore

5 Rialto Towers

Jetstar Payroll Jumble

Some time ago, in one of the many incidents of administrative offshoring that the ASU is currently campaigning against, budget Qantas subsidiary Jetstar offshored its payroll processes, making its Australian payroll staff redundant. The move aimed to improve ‘efficiency’.

Since then, ASU members working for other areas of the airline have had constant issues with payroll— underpayment, wrong annual leave accrual, wrong sick leave and other issues. In August, members received group certificates containing errors that could lead to adverse tax assessments.

When ASU delegates and organisers became aware of the issues with the group certificates, they immediately informed members and Jetstar management. Unfortunately, some members had already filed their tax, and were faced with fees and considerable inconvenience to retrieve them!

ASU representation ensured that members were reimbursed for these costs.

Subsequently, ASU delegates have met with Jetstar management to discuss a range of other issues arising from the errors made in issuing the Jetstar group certificates.

It now appears that Jetstar has taken on board our general feedback that has highlighted the problems with the company’s payroll system as management has finally engaged a person to do a total review of the system and recommend how it can be fixed.

Jetstar members have been assisting the ASU in gathering evidence to take to the company, to encourage them to fix the payroll system.

Preparing for a hostile work environmentIn recent discussions with management at a Melbourne call centre, management threatened to block ASU emails from getting to members. What made them so mad? We’d surveyed members about stress in their workplace.

Members have a right to information about their health and safety, and unfortunately, employers may not always want them to get it. We encourage delegates to prepare for this by asking members to provide accurate home email and telephone number details to the ASU office.

OHS Issue coming up

Delegates who are also OHS officers should make sure you’re registered as such with the office, as there’s a special OHS news coming out soon with helpful info about OHS in the services industry.

Did you know you can become an OHS Rep for your workplace? The ASU OHS Reps kit, which guides you through the process, can be downloaded from asuvic.org/health-and-safety-fact-sheets-and-guides

Once you’ve become an OHS rep, training is available through Victorian Trades Hall Council. Dates for the rest of the year below.

OH&S Training DatesInitial 5 day training courseNovember 12 - 16 Ballarat, MorwellNov 19-21 - Dec 10-11 CarltonDecember 3 - 7 Carlton

1 day refresherOctober 31 CarltonDecember 10 Carlton

Negotiations continue at TIO, where bargaining reps have received a preliminary response to their proposal. The TIO and reps are currently discussing changes to normal span of hours, higher duties allowance and Christmas close down (members are currently required to take annual leave). Discussions continue.

The ASU has taken Menzies Aviation to Fair Work Australia on behalf of members. The ASU is asking FWA to require Menzies to correctly pay the buddy allowance contained in the current Enterprise Agreement. The company had refused to pay members the buddy allowance when staff were training new employees. Menzies have asked FWA for time to consider their position. We expect to hear more from the company in the coming week.

Bargaining news in brief

Staff changes at the ASUMost delegates and members in SACS and Legal would now be aware of the happy arrival of Organiser Kassey Dickie’s baby Maverick. Maverick made an early appearance in July, and is now enjoying quality time with mum.

While Kassey’s on maternity leave, her organising areas are being ably covered by Sean Williams, formerly of World Vision.

Delegates in Airlines would also be aware that Organiser Sharon Sanchez is leaving the ASU after many years of tireless work on behalf of ASU members. We wish Sharon all the best for the future.

Oxfam EBA finalised

After months of negotiation and significant effort by hardworking delegates Bruce Frances and Yvette Petersen, a new EBA for members at Oxfam has now been finalised. Members endorsed the new agreement by a margin of 144 in a vote last month, and it has now been sent to Fair Work Australia for approval.

The new Oxfam EBA has become one of a growing number of enterprise agreements featuring a family violence clause recognising the role of workplaces in addressing domestic violence in our communities. We congratulate members on this step to protect workmates suffering domestic violence.

Right: Oxfam delegates celebrate the finalisation of their EBA. With a goat.

October 2012 Edition: Authorised and printed by Ingrid Stitt, Branch Secretary ASU Victorian Private Sector Branch, 117 Capel Street North Melbourne 3051