Who you gonna call? Some of the hard-working MSC team.
2011 marks 10 years since the CPSU set up the Member Service Centre and looking back over the decade, it’s clear a lot has changed.
The MSC is a team of phone organisers based in Sydney, responsible for providing
expert advice and support to delegates and members. The centre is open from 8am
to 8pm Monday to Friday.
The MSC was initially set up in the Howard Government years, as a response to
a hostile, anti-union environment in which workplace delegates were finding it
difficult to represent their members. Delegates were facing increasingly
aggressive employers, backed by industrial relations legislation that favoured
the rights of employers over employees and restricted to the rights of union
representatives in the workplace.
The original idea was to create a one-stop-shop that would give members
access to union expertise, advice and support over the phone from organisers
whenever they needed it.
When the Government changed in 2007 and the industrial and legislative
environment improved, the role of the MSC began to evolve.
As MSC Director Charlie Thomas explains, “When the MSC first started most of
our interactions were directly with members. These days however our organisers
spend as much time providing structured support and mentoring for workplace
delegates as they do helping individual members directly.”
This significant change reflects the improved rights of workplace
representatives as well as the significant investment the CPSU has made to
expand and strengthen our network of delegates.
Workplace expertise
The MSC staff are fully trained industrial organisers who specialise in a
wide range of technical matters including industrial relations legislation,
occupational health and safety, compensation, the Public Service Act and
countless enterprise agreements.
MSC staff also work with a range of external stakeholders such as Slater and
Gordon lawyers, Comcare, the Merit Protection Commission and the Australian
Human Rights Commission to ensure the CPSU’s knowledge base is up-to-date and
members get the best and most current advice.
Support for delegates
MSC team leader Melissa Payne has started delivering specialist training for
workplace delegates. The training covers all aspects of assisting a member with
an individual issue, including:
techniques and tools
processes
resources
working with the MSC
managing members’ expectations, and,
how to choose the best process to achieve a good outcome.
MSC organisers also have a program to mentor new delegates as they become
more confident assisting members with individual issues.
For new delegates, this often begins with the MSC organiser providing
technical advice and assistance to the member with the delegate present. The
delegate is then able to provide limited support to the member while they
observe the MSC organiser’s handling of the case and learn skills and
techniques.
“It’s been great to see those relationships develop,” Ms Payne said. “For new
delegates, you may go through the entire case with them, providing advice and
support all the way through. As their confidence and experience progresses, we
may just get a quick call from them to run their plans past us and double check
that they haven’t missed anything.”
Outbound support
In 2007 the CPSU expanded the union’s phone capacity by establishing the
Outbound Call Unit (OCU). The OCU fulfils a critical role in campaigning work
and allows the union to contact large numbers of members to provide information,
seek members’ feedback on campaign issues and discuss upcoming campaign
activities.
OCU staff have been involved in many recent campaigns, with staff and
volunteer members and delegates making thousands of calls to members to discuss
issues and build support. In one month of the Department of Human Services
campaign, MSC staff and volunteers phoned more than 8,000 members.
As well as campaign work, part of the OCU’s ongoing work involves making
contact with members whose financial details are out of date. This critical work
ensures members have continuity of coverage and ensures the financial security
of the union.
The MSC by numbers
In the 2010/11 financial year, the MSC successfully:
assisted with 13,630
workplace industrial queries
provided advice and support to more than 4,000
members
provided advice and support to more than 780 workplace delegates
attended more than 300 telephone hookups to support members in meetings with
their employers
