To: SRC Management
SRC Pay Up: Workers must not bear the costs of WFH!
For too long, casuals at SRC have been made to front the costs of working from home. We have been forced to supply our own equipment, including computers and peripherals, headsets, phone, internet and utility costs, and office furniture. This amounts to a blatant violation of our hard-won EBA, which states in clause 15.1 that "an employer shall reimburse an employee for all expenses which have been actually and properly incurred ... in the discharge of the employee's duties."
We have calculated a flat rate of reimbursement for all staff based on averaged out costs of equipment and utilities. SRC must come to the table and pay up now.
Why is this important?
These costs are an additional and wholly unnecessary financial strain on workers who have already been struggling under precarious employment conditions in the midst of a global pandemic. Many staff have made big-ticket purchases of hundreds and even thousands of dollars in order to keep their jobs. Others, with no promise of being reimbursed, have gone without, resulting in many of us working under conditions that cause pain and discomfort and pose risks to our OHS. This has gone on for far too long and it must end now.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not an excuse for companies to shift the costs and burdens of employment further onto the individual employee who cannot afford to bear them. Workers have struggled through the past year while the multi-million dollar company we work for has survived and thrived and workload has been higher than ever. This situation is wholly unethical and represents the erosion of our rights as workers and our financial security. Rest assured that call centres around the country are watching what happens now at SRC, and if we sit back and allow them to close our office, make us bear all the costs of our own employment, and not support us or pay us anything, then other workplaces will surely follow suit. It's time to set a strong precedent that we will not be taken advantage of.