TELUS Mobility not in contempt of court over use of customer activation software

The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that TELUS Mobility and its executive VP of employee services, David Wells, were not in contempt of court over the continued use of its Apollo.02 customer activation system, reaffirming a Dec. 2, 2002 Federal Court of Canada decision on the matter (RoW, Dec. 20/02). The wireless operator was defending itself against allegations from the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) that use of the Apollo.02 software still amounted to contracting out work reserved for unionized customer activation agents and contravened stipulations in a December 1992 agreement between the two parties (RoW, March 18/03). The Federal Court of Appeal didn’t see it that way and ruled that TELUS Mobility, and therefore Wells, could not be found in contempt of court because the company hadn’t violated a previous order on the matter. The TWU alleged that TELUS Mobility’s use of the Apollo.02 subscriber activation system violated a previous order of the Federal Court.Justice Karen Sharlow wrote: "Nor can I find anything in the order, or in any of the decision of Mr. Kelleher, requiring any particular degree or quality of participation by Activations Representatives in the process of activating or altering wireless accounts. A single mouse click is not very much work. It doesn’t require much skill, or any discretion. It is difficult to conceive of a smaller degree of participation in the process. However, there is simply nothing in the order that provides a basis for concluding that more than a single mouse click is required to cure the breach of the Letter of Agreement. "The inescapable conclusion is that TELUS is not in breach of the order, and thus cannot be held in contempt of court. That being the case, there can be no finding of contempt of court by Mr. Wells." The TWU isn’t satisfied with the ruling and will now try to resolve the issue internally in conjunction with the company through the Standing Committee on Contracting Out and Technological Change (COTC). "We’re disappointed that the person kind of missed that point," Bruce Bell, a TWU VP, says referring to the December 2002 ruling. "We took that on and they missed it again. But we think we can try and get some resolve back at the COTC committee. That’s where we plan on addressing the issue." Bell believes this is a significant issue and still maintains that TELUS Mobility is contracting out by only requiring unionized activation agents to press a mouse button to activate a cell phone account. "Virtually what happens is you basically press a button, the membership presses a button, and it lets (all the information) flood in as opposed to actually doing the work. Dealers can do all this work with the customers and then it goes into a buffer and then you press a button and it goes in. "The work that’s contracted out can’t go anywhere until the unionized person presses the button to let all that work be done. But who does the work? Who does the contact with the customer? Who writes it up? Who explains it? If you’re going to get a phone (activated) you need to talk to a service rep, but there’s no way your order gets in until the unionized employee pushes the button."

TELUS Mobility not in contempt of court over use of customer activation software

News | March 23, 2004

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