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  Issue No 115 Official Organ of LaborNet 12 October 2001  

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Unions

From the Virtual Coalface


Computer programmer Vince Caughley argues there is a place for unions in the IT industry.

 
 

Vince Caughley

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For years there have been a couple of myths in particular that are often repeated about IT workers.

The first is that we don't need unions. We're all quite well paid, there's a lot of industry activity, a lot of jobs around, we're in strong bargaining positions, so why would we need unions?

The other is that for whatever reason - whether it's the nature of the work or it's something genetic - IT workers are particularly individualistic. We're not into collective action and very much like to operate as individuals.

I've been working as a software engineer for around 10 years or so, across a number of sectors in the industry, and my experience is that IT workers, while certainly enjoying relatively good incomes, are not at all hostile to union organising, and that there is now, more than ever, a real need for us to get organised.

Of particular concern is that in our industry there are a lot of excessive hours being done, fifty hours a week being not out of the ordinary. In fact it's more often that not expected. I try to do only my 7� or 8 hours a day, but to do that I find myself arriving at work after many people, and leaving before they take off. There's a pressure there, a real culture of having to stick around and do the hours.

If you're a permanent employee, the extra 10 or 15 hours worked on top of, say, a nominal 38 hour week, are also more often than not unpaid. There are very few employers that actually pay overtime. If you're a contractor, you may be getting paid, but from personal experience, there's only so long you can keep up these sorts of hours before something gives - either in your personal life or in terms or your health.

Of course, this situation is completely unreasonable. The industry really needs to be organised so that, like other more mature industries, we can get some fairness and sanity, more regularity, into expected working hours.

But there's more to it than simply hours of work. Because the IT industry relies on various forms of individual contracts and the market to "regulate" conditions, it's common to come across a number of other issues.

Basic conditions, such as your annual and sick leave entitlements, vary greatly from employer to employer. Recruitment agencies can take inexperienced contractors for a ride. Things like salary and performance reviews often rely on a great deal of subjectivity and arbitrariness. Often it's not quite clear what your job description is, even whether you have been hired as a "contractor" or a permanent employee. Generally, there's no award safety net.

Working in a relatively new industry and using new technologies can certainly be rewarding, but working under out-dated employment conditions is no fun at all.

Two years ago I was working for Toshiba and we actually found ourselves in exactly this sort of situation. There was major discrepancy between the employment conditions of people doing exactly the same jobs. The contracts of people working side by side varied enormously. For example, some workers were being paid annual leave loading, while others weren't. And because employment arrangements were made confidentially between the individual worker and the employer, most people were unaware of the situation.

Not surprisingly, there was also an established culture of doing long hours for particular projects. Some people, including myself, who had to go "on-site" were, on occasion clocking up to 70 hours for a nominal 35 hour week.

I'd regularly had private words with my managers, but found this particularly unhelpful.

After a few conversations with co-workers and discovering that most people weren't really happy with the situation, I began to investigate the possibility of organising ourselves within a union. It wasn't immediately obvious which union we should join, so we shopped around and found that the Australian Services Union (ASU) were willing to help us out. I met with an organiser and she agreed that there were plenty of possibilities for us getting together as a group, sorting out our employment conditions, and presenting a collective voice to management.

It was during the process of joining people up to the union and getting ourselves organised collectively that proved to me that there really is no more effective way to negotiate in a workplace.

Over several months, and after many meetings both as a group of workers and with management, we were successful in standardising employment conditions throughout the workplace, more accurately defining job descriptions and, most importantly, negotiating acceptable working hours - including penalty rates for overtime.

Of course, it wasn't exactly easy, and management tried all sorts of things to try to "convince" us that we should accept less than what we considered to be reasonable. We were forced to take various forms of industrial action, including going on strike - the first time IT workers in Australia had gone out - to win our demands.

Now, while my experience of unionism in the industry isn't, unfortunately, the norm, I think it shows that there's nothing particularly unusual about IT workers. In our industry there are issues which need addressing, and if it's pointed out that there are very good reasons for being in a union and working together to actively organise your workplace, people will join and they will stick together.

This is why I'm excited about the formation of the IT Workers Alliance.

Until now, it has been pretty difficult to openly discuss what's going on in the industry, to find out who to contact and how to go about it all. This is what is great about www.itworkers-alliance.org - it's all there.

The Alliance is an important step towards getting IT people switched on to the good and the bad of working in IT and what we can do about it. I'd encourage people to check out the site, to have a say, and try to get their workmates taking an interest. If we make it work, it can become an important voice for workers in our industry.


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*    Visit the IT Workers Alliance

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 115 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Connecting the State
NSW IT minister Kim Yeadon is the man responsible for enabling the people of NSW. Here's how he's doing it.
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*  Workplace: The Enemy Within
In the IT industry it's the recruiters who are earning the workers' ire, as our special correspondent explains.
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*  Unions: From the Virtual Coalface
Computer programmer Vince Caughley argues there is a place for unions in the IT industry.
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*  History: Conditions Precedent
Frank Bongiorno writes that the recent events off the coast of Christmas Island recall a story once told by Paul Hasluck.
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*  International: Victims of Terrorism
Repression against trade unionists on the increase world wide, with 209 trade unionists assassinated last year, reveals ICFTU 2001 Survey.
*
*  Campaign Diary: Week One: Get Shorty
Labor's first week of campaigning was as an effort to gain attention from a nation rocked by the telvised war on terrorism.
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*  Economics: Global Alliances
Ray Marcelo reports from India that the ILO is arguing that globalisation needs a worker and employer alliance.
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*  Health: The Phantom Menace
Trade unions made an impact this week at an international congress In Melbourne in the global fight against AIDS.
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*  Review: Rings of Confidence
In his study on the 2000 Olympics, Tony Webb argues that the government and unions reached a new level of cooperation.
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*  Satire: Greens 'Quietly Unconfident' of Forming Government
A leaked memo from a senior member of the Greens reveals the party is unconfident of winning government on November 10.
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»  Activists Notebook
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Columns
»  The Soapbox
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Piers Watch
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Letters to the editor
»  Aussie No Orwell
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»  Health in Election Equation
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»  Who Dares Wins
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»  Protection - WorkCover Style
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