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From: Swagy
Date: 01 Jul 2001
Time: 12:30:37 -0400
Remote Name: 24.16.242.59
The following was in the SMH this morning, now that is a potential fine :) Anti-union email may cost Telstra $420m fine By Brad Norington, Industrial Editor Telstra faces an extraordinary fine of $420 million after a former senior executive unlawfully discriminated against union workers in company emails. The Telstra executive - now a Howard Government appointee to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission - also faces calls for his removal from office from angry unions claiming he is biased against them. The Federal Court found on Friday that senior deputy president Rob Cartwright gave preferred treatment last year to Telstra employees who had signed non-union individual contracts. He instructed managers by email that they should take into account the loyalty of Telstra employees who had signed contracts when implementing 10,000 redundancies. Non-union contract workers had shown "trust" in the company by accepting Telstra's "preferred model of individual employment". In extraordinary comments from the Bench, Justice Ray Finkelstein said it was likely that the offending email amounted to 42,500 contraventions of freedom of association provisions because this was the number of Telstra employees involved. Alluding to the maximum $10,000 fine for each breach of the law, Justice Finkelstein said Mr Cartwright's actions produced a "potential top penalty of $420 million or something like that". Mr Cartwright, who has so far declined to comment on the ruling, came under strong pressure from unions and the Federal Opposition yesterday to either stand down or face possible removal under misbehaviour provisions. His appointment to the commission late last year is already the subject of controversy because it was one of the final executive decisions by Mr Peter Reith before he was moved to the Defence portfolio. Mr Cartwright was known for his strident anti-union views when he implemented non-union strategies as a human resources manager for the Rio Tinto mining company and Telstra. The ACTU secretary, Mr Greg Combet, said the Federal Court decision brought Mr Cartwright's continued place on the commission's Bench into question. The Opposition spokesman on industrial relations, Mr Arch Bevis, said the court's ruling left a cloud over Mr Cartwright and he should consider his position. "To undertake its crucial role as an independent umpire the Industrial Relations Commission needs to maintain a high degree of confidence and support from the community," Mr Bevis said. The Federal Court ruling is an important development in the status being given to the use of workplace emails and how they may be regarded as published items capable of influencing behaviour. The judge accepted arguments that the email discriminated against workers because it was likely to affect their security of employment. If Mr Cartwright refuses to resign from the commission, the only way he can be removed is by a majority vote of both Houses of Federal Parliament. A senior official with the Community and Public Sector Union, Mr Stephen Jones, said: "He's supposed to be an independent umpire ruling on issues covered by the Workplace Relations Act. He must be in a difficult position now that the Federal Court has found him guilty of breaching that act."