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Telco technicians launch class action over ‘sham contracting’
A company whose technicians carry out work on behalf of Foxtel, Optus and NBN Co has been hit with a class action potentially involving more than 2,000 workers.
Tony Zhang
Shine Lawyers has launched a class action on behalf of thousands of telecommunications technicians who missed out on pay and entitlements after being wrongly categorised as subcontractors at BSA Ltd.
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The firm alleges BSA Limited (ASX: BSA), a company which has supplied a workforce to Foxtel, Optus and NBN Co since 2003, should have instead treated the technicians as employees.
Class actions practice leader Vicky Antzoulatos said the case, lodged in the Federal Court of Australia, will argue the technicians are covered by the Fair Work Act (2009) and Telecommunications Services Award.
“We allege this [publicly listed] company has misrepresented the nature of its engagement with its technicians,” Ms Antzoulatos said.
“The technicians believed they were subcontractors when we say in all respects they were employees and are entitled to minimum wage, overtime, sick leave, annual leave, and superannuation.”
According to Ms Antzoulatos, BSA’s system of work enabled it to avoid paying annual leave, sick leave, superannuation and other basic entitlements.
She said workers bore the full cost of purchasing vehicles, tools, equipment and insurance, and then had to accept substandard rates of pay for the jobs on offer.
“We believe the technicians ended up with considerably less money in their pocket as a result of [sham contracting] and this type of system of work needs to be called out, especially during these tough economic times when people are hurting,” she said.
This becomes the second major firm in the telecommunications sector to face such allegations. Previously a similar class action was launched against Tandem in 2018 from Shine Lawyers.
BSA has denied the allegations and said in a statement it “has a long track record of good working relationships with … our independent contractors”.
“We believe our contracting arrangements are compliant with legal obligations and are in line with those used [industry-wide] by all reputable major players,” the company said.
The legal action is funded by Australian litigation funder, Litigation Lending Services Ltd.
“We’re pleased to provide financial support for this class action on behalf of hardworking technicians who it is alleged have been disadvantaged by unfair work schemes,” said senior litigation manager Lisa Brentnall added.
