Telstra shift workers win holiday back-payments

Twenty-two Telstra shift workers are expecting "thousands of dollars" in back-pay, following a payment system error that has neglected to account for public holidays since 2005.

Telstra management notified employees of the error last fortnight, after what the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has painted as a year-long dispute.

According to the Union, the issue stemmed from a time recording system that was introduced by Telstra in 2005.

The system failed to award public holiday pay to Canberra-based shift workers on fortnights that either involved a public holiday, or time off in lieu of a public holiday.

Staff raised the issue with their managers "nearly a year ago", according to CPSU spokesman Shane Roulstone, but it was only after an April letter from the CPSU that Telstra took action, the union claims.

CPSU announced the back-payments today as a union win.

However, a Telstra spokesman told iTnews that the investigation and subsequent back-payments arose from an internal complaint.

"Telstra identified an administrative error with payments to a small number of employees in Canberra," the Telstra spokesman told iTnews.

"We resolved this issue as quickly as possible and it has now been fixed."

Roulston said 22 workers were affected by the payment system error, including 18 CPSU members and 4 non-members. All 22 will receive back-payments.