CPSU Federal Office

As a result of the global attacks on Government provision of services and infrastructure, the Public Services International, the global Union Federation of public service unions, called a meeting of all major affiliates across the world, which was held at the AFSCME Offices (US Public Sector Union) in Washington DC in early December 2015.  For the last two days public services' union leaders from across the globe and policy leaders from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the U.S.

A new report, released in Europe, highlights the need for governments around the globe to urgently address international corporate tax system loopholes.  The report is timely, given the Turnbull Liberal Government’s current tax reform agenda.  The report, ‘Still Broken’, illustrates how United States corporations have avoided an estimated $US1.45 billion of tax in Australia each year by shifting their profits to low or no tax countries. 

The TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) parties have reached in-principle agreement.  The details are still secret and won’t be made public for at least another month.  Despite wide-spread public opposition to the trade agreement, specifically the pharmaceutical support arrangements and the investor-state dispute settlement clause, the 12 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) have now reached in-principle agreement.  The TPP is a huge multilateral agreement covering Australia, New Zealand, Canada

There are six flights a week to and from Norfolk Island, made up of two from Sydney, two from Brisbane and two from Auckland.  The airport and not the town centre is arguably the most important hub on the Island, it is where the Island’s residents meet, greet and congregate.  Almost everyone you speak to on the Island appears to know the airline schedule, and being a part-time operation, many hold a second or third job there for a few hours a week.  It makes a strange sight when through the window of your departing plane you spot someone who served you in a shop or waited a table only a few

The UK government published the Trade Union Bill in July and it contains wide-ranging measures designed to restrict the ability of union members to organise collectively and take industrial action.  These include thresholds for turnouts in strike ballots, restrictions on the right to picket and the removal of the ban on the use of agency workers to replace striking workers.  The government expects that the Second Reading of the Bill will take place in the House of Commons either in September or October 2015 after a short summer consultation which PSI considers insufficient to ensure the wid

CPSU resolved at its Federal Executive meeting in August to initiate a campaign for legislation to set limits around privatisation and to promote publicly owned and run services.  Public services are the foundation of a fair and just society. They extend opportunities, protect the vulnerable, and improve everyone’s quality of life. Public services strengthen our communities and bind us together as a society.  Our public services are under threat by state governments who want to contract-out their obligations to the highest bidder to make a profit.

Across Australia our respective branches are involved in the many challenges confronting state Education more now than at any other time in the last two decades.  Some of those challenges are system driven by either a state or federal Government policy initiative, or they are school based driven by poor decision making be either the Department or a School Principal.  Irrespective of the source, the subsequent impact these changes are having on our members and their communities are influencing the future for our schools.  On review of the various state campaigns, similar themes have emerged

Fiji is a Country evocative of tropical weather, palm trees, waves lapping against the beach, friendly locals and rugby union.  A paradise in the middle of the pacific – unless you happen to be a union worker.  The Fiji Government has produced the Employee Relations (Amendment) Bill 2015 (“ERB”) and in June 2015 Mark Perica, our Senior Legal Officer, was asked by the ACTU to attend before a Parliamentary Committee in Suva which was taking submissions on the Bill.  By way of a short political history, there was a military coup in 2006 which installed Rear Admiral Bainimarama.  The R

Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced cuts to the federal government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme on Mothers’ Day.  New parents who are entitled to receive employer-funded primary carers leave payments will have their government-funded parental payments reduced or, in many cases, cut altogether.  Abbott’s poorly named ‘Fairer Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill’ will deny access to government-funded paid parental leave to 46% of Australian women.  Access to 26 weeks paid parental leave is advocated by the World Health Organisation as optimal for the health and well-being of mothers and babies

The largest ever leak of negotiating documents from the controversial Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) highlights the madness of secrecy and provides no comfort for users of public services.  Seventeen separate secret documents were released today including working papers and nine critical annexes on sensitive sectors such as financial services, postal services, maritime, domestic regulation, telecommunications, professional services, and labour migration.  The latest leaks highlight the cat and mouse game being played by the