IBM workers will continue to work longer hours without extra pay over the Christmas period, after talks on overtime stalled.
A survey of employees at IBM Global Services Australia (IBMGSA) found that 97 percent of workers want paid overtime, time-off-in-lieu or the choice of the two in return for overtime worked.
The results were handed to management on November 30 however, the Communications and Public Sector Union (CPSU) says IBMGSA still expects staff to work an extra five to seven hours per week without extra pay.
"The fact that 67 percent of respondents had family, sporting, social or other commitments that had been rearranged due to pressure of work shows that staff are providing the flexibility that management wants," a CPSU statement said.
"When will the company show a similar commitment to staff?"
Management may have addressed excessive, continuous unpaid overtime, but "members have said that that's not good enough," CPSU industrial officer Priya Carey said.
"As a result of our interest in the unpaid overtime issue, the amount of very high weekly hours being worked has been reduced [at IBMGSA]," Carey said.
Earlier this year, over 80 percent of IBMGSA employees were working an extra two weeks per year in additional hours, according to Carey. Whereas, the November survey found staff were working 42-45 hours a week rather than the 50-plus hours they had been working previously.
"It is encouraging to see that the proportion of staff regularly working very long hours has decreased," CPSU said, "but the survey results show that just cutting back on 50-hour weeks is not enough".
IBMGSA, a subsidiary of IBM and part owned by Telstra, is unlikely to have the opportunity to address the issue of unpaid overtime before the end of January, the CPSU said.
IBMGSA hadn't returned calls by press time.
