BY KATRINA BARBEN

BRISBANE — Industrial action by workers at the Australian Communications Exchange has led to a significant breakthrough in negotiations, management agreeing in advance to implement a Queensland Industrial Relations Commission due next year on new casual rates of pay.

Workers are also confident that they will be able to negotiate more permanent positions for casual employees at the company, after 60 workers picketed the exchange on October 7 to protest the deadlocked talks.

The ACE call centre at Woolloongabba is staffed by about 100 relay officers, who provide a nation-wide service relaying information between people with hearing impairments and the wider community.

Many of the relay officers have been employed since the ACE was set up as a community organisation five years ago, and some were volunteers providing the same service prior to that. Most employees are women.

Workers expect that the new loading, to be set by the industrial relations commission next year, will compensate for the comparative improvements in the position of permanent workers since their current casual loading was set.

A leaflet distributed by the workers at their picket said that they, “like many of their colleagues across the call centre industry, do not have any choice but to work on a casual basis, even though they may work up to 38 hours a week. ... ACE employees believe they deserve the same conditions as other Australian workers. They are arguing for greater job security [and] more adequate compensation for the benefits they're missing out on because they've no choice but to work as casuals.”

There are about 80,000 staff working in about 2000 call centres around Australia, and has grown in numbers by an estimated 20-25% each year. The industry is currently valued at more than $1.8 billion.

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