ATO outsource call centre workers paid 40% less than public service peers, Fair Work submission claims

Workers at the Australian Taxation Office’s outsource call centres are paid up to 40% less than public service counterparts, a Fair Work Commission submission says. Photograph: simonkr/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Workers at the Australian Taxation Office’s outsource call centres are paid up to 40% less than public service counterparts, a Fair Work Commission submission says. Photograph: simonkr/Getty Images ATO outsource call centre workers paid 40% less than public service peers, Fair Work submission claims Ahead of ‘same job, same pay’ hearings, former call centre worker Nathan Brunne says pay gap is structural and widens at senior levels Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Workers at the Australian Taxation Office’s outsource call centres are paid up to 40% less than their public service counterparts on the same phone lines, according to submissions lodged ahead of landmark “same job, same pay” hearings. The pay gap, detailed by Nathan Brunne, a former worker on the ATO phone lines employed by the private equity-backed Probe Operations, widens at more senior call centre roles, with team leaders at outsource operators paid about $31 an hour compared with more than $52 at the tax office. Grill’d burger chain sued over alleged greenwashing by consumer watchdog Read more Brunne is relying on the Albanese government’s workplace reforms, designed to stop employers using labour hire firms to pay workers less than direct employees doing largely the same work. Those reforms are now being used against the government’s chief revenue collection agency, which is particularly reliant on outsource arrangements through the use of three private call centre operators. “The pay gap is not marginal, it is structural and widens at higher classification levels,” Brunne said in his submission to the Fair Work Commission, released by the tribunal to Guardian Australia. “This is the direct consequence of routing equivalent work through a lower-paying intermediary, and is precisely the kind of wage arbitrage [the reform] was enacted to address.” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email If the application is successful, the call centres will be forced to pay the same rates as ATO staff covered by a public sector agreement, potentially making the outsource model unviable for the tax office and other government agencies. The hearings are expected to start late next month. Legal argument The legal argument is likely to turn on whether the ATO’s use of outsource call centres is an attempt to access labour hire on cheaper rates, or represents a genuine separate service. That question partly relies on how much the job functions and systems overlap between the ATO and its three outsource call centres, run by Probe, the US-listed Concentrix Services and the British multinational Serco. View image in fullscreen Nathan Brunne, a former worker on the ATO phone lines employed by Probe Operations has applied to the Fair Work Commission for a ‘