The Australian Council of Trade Unions has been accused of hypocrisy by one of its affiliates after it hired an anti-union call centre to conduct research for its federal election campaign.

The National Union of Workers says workers at Customers 1to1, a non-union operation based in the Sydney suburb of Greenwich, have been subjected to bullying, harassment and sacking threats at the same time they make calls on behalf of the ACTU for a marginal seat “voter ID” program. The NUW claims workers have been disciplined for getting a drink of water and that they must ask to go to the toilet if they’re not on a break.

Customers 1to1 was recently awarded the plum ACTU contract to telephone 280,000 union members to establish their political leanings in the lead-up to September 14. The information will then be used to target key labour movement messages around hot-button topics like workplace rights. But it seems all is not well in its own backyard.

A forthright email sent on Monday to “all staff” by the firm’s CEO Barry Cottrill and obtained by Crikey accuses the NUW of “inappropriate” behaviour and for distributing “misleading” pamphlets. He says the union is “there for one reason only … a recruitment drive which raises membership funds for themselves”. Last night, the NUW lodged an official “F10” dispute against Customers 1to1 at Fair Work Australia, claiming the company was undercutting pay and conditions.

The Fair Work Australia application states NUW organisers have been blocked from entering the site and that at the union meetings that did occur, a manager had been present in the tea room to monitor the discussion.

NUW organiser Godfrey Moase says the peak body needs to “review its own conduct when entering into third-party contracts.”

“I came from a market research call centre. It’s where I joined the union. It personally upsets me to see what we build as workers being undermined,” he said.

The NUW is meeting with the ACTU this afternoon to make its concerns clear. It says there are many alternative unionised call centres that the ACTU could have engaged instead.

As a condition of the ACTU contract, Customers 1to1 (which currently pays award wages) was required to engage with a union to negotiate an industry standard enterprise agreement. Since the contract was awarded the NUW has managed to sign up a number of members. But Crikey understands there is also some intra-union tension at the site, with the Australian Services Union also attempting to recruit members. Meanwhile, the firm appears to have been borrowing heavily from a union-busting playbook.

An ACTU spokesman defended the arrangement this morning: “The contract specifies that staff will be paid according to a registered industrial agreement. This will include union inductions and that staff will have access to their union in the workplace.”

Customers 1to1 CEO Barry Cottrill issued a flat “no comment” when contacted by Crikey, but then decided to expand when specific allegations were put to him. “I don’t know where you’re getting that information from,” he said.

Later, he issued a written statement saying the firm had “agreed to provide a union induction to all staff working on the ACTU campaign”, that there were “arrangements in place to allow staff to meet with their union in the workplace” and that “the firm looked forward to working with the union that represents our staff”.

“Customers 1to1 have a very good relationship with our staff and we are looking forward to working on the campaign which is important for the union movement,” he said.