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 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. 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. …