Public servants union says government is picking a big fight

Date
    April 3, 2014


The Abbott government has picked a ''big industrial brawl'' with its ''ugly'' approach to the jobs of 160,000 federal public servants, according to the service's main union.      :(

Another union is warning that serious workplace strife is inevitable with below-inflation pay rises predicted and big departments admitting they will not even be able to start talking for at least two months.

Public Service Minister Eric Abetz accused unions of endangering thousands of jobs with a pay claim of 12 per cent over three years.

The bureaucracy's biggest union, the CPSU, will gather more than 200 of its activists in Canberra on Thursday and launch its campaign against the government's policy position, which was released last week.



The hardline policy offers no pay rises for departmental staffers unless their bosses can prove they have extracted ''productivity gains'', and there is pressure on public service chiefs to crack down on sick leave.

CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood says Senator Abetz is using the jobs of the 160,000 public servants in a broader political fight over the government's industrial relations agenda. ''They're trying to hide a serious attack on workers' rights and conditions behind 45 pages of dry technical language,'' Ms Flood said.

''Minister Abetz is using pay as a distraction to avoid talking about his attacks on workers' job security and conditions. They have effectively decided to use government bargaining as a political football rather than settle agreements and get on with it … they have chosen to make this part of a bigger political fight.''

Ms Flood's union will issue a call-to-arms this week to tens of thousands of public servants in the government's frontline departments.

''This policy asks a frontline Customs officer to accept cuts to jobs, an increasing work load, cuts to rights, cuts to conditions, cuts to real wages,'' Ms Flood said. ''It's not exactly fair and reasonable.      :(

''We did not want a big industrial brawl over public service bargaining, we wanted to settle reasonable deals.

''What this policy does is it says the government wants a fight.''   :(      

Departments are telling unions that they will not be able to negotiate until they see in what shape next month's budget leaves their finances and then navigate the bureaucratic and political hurdles contained in the bargaining framework.      

The Australian Service Union's tax office organiser Jeff Lapidos said it was ironic the government released its policy after the much-hyped ''bonfire of red tape''.

''They deliberately released the policy after the bonfire so they could tie up the departmental secretaries in red tape,'' Mr Lapidos said.

Professionals Australia official Dave Smith warned that industrial disputes were inevitable, with his members potentially going backward in their pay and conditions.

''They're stripping their agreements, not even having having pay agreements that keep pace with the cost of living, and then they don't expect that people are going to push back at that?'' Mr Smith said. ''We will certainly be supporting our members in talking whatever action in the Fair Work Act they have.''

In a statement supplied through his Canberra office on Wednesday, Senator Abetz accused the CPSU of being out of touch with its own membership.

''The CPSU's job-endangering 12 per cent wage claim is out of touch both with budget circumstances and their own constituency,'' the minister said in his statement.

''It will potentially cost another 10,000 jobs on top of the 14,500 cuts inherited from Labor. I think most public servants realise this.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/public-servants-union-says-government-is-picking-a-big-fight-20140402-35z6h.html#ixzz2xlcjvjFr

Declaring war on workers, and their unions is a conservative way of life.

Why?

Who knows?

That is just the way things are and always will be.

Sad, really, but there it is.

Peter Freedman wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2014 at 7:57am:

Declaring war on workers, and their unions is a conservative way of life. Why? Who knows? That is just the way things are and always will be. Sad, really, but there it is.

;D ;D ;D ;D Nothing sad about it!   ;) ;) ;)

Peter Freedman wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2014 at 7:57am:

Declaring war on workers, and their unions is a conservative way of life. Why? Who knows? That is just the way things are and always will be. Sad, really, but there it is.

you really think unions care about their members dont you???..thats why shorty went out of his way to prevent a royal into the AWU... and putting the HSU into administration..



A Federal Court judge has expressed scepticism about the Gillard government’s sudden decision to install an administrator to take control of the Health Services Union and questioned why the government turned up to court asking for two weeks to get the paperwork together.

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten took the rare step of moving to place the HSU East branch into administration, a decision welcomed by the ACTU and Unions NSW and blasted by Kathy Jackson, the national secretary at the centre of a power struggle in the union.

“He [Mr Shorten] wants to make sure he ends up in a position where he controls this union personally, not as the minister, but personally,” she said.

Mr Shorten, who said he was acting to protect the union’s 55,000 members, signalled he might block publication of a report by Fair Work Australia into alleged irregularities in the union that examined the role of former national secretary and federal Labor MP Craig Thomson.

“I will not put at risk any potential civil or criminal charges,” he said.

He was accused by the federal opposition of trying to shield Mr Thomson.


would he do anything like that?????...


do you really think unions do no wrong and should therefore never be questioned????????

This is a fight I want the government to have.

Take the fat bloated pigs on.

Just look at the HSU for one example.

55,000 members @ $10 a week dues - 1/2 a million $ a week - $28,600,000 per year.

No wonder they see no problem stealing a few million, paying for whores etc etc

I wonder how much waste and theft we don't hear about?

These antiquated, bloated, good for nothing entities and their impact on OZ needs to be curtailed.

:)