CPSU Federal Office

At election time political parties not only make commitments to the people of the state they seek to govern but they also make commitments as the employer of public sector workers.  Commitments to honour employment agreements, commitments to bargain in good faith, commitments to protect jobs are commitments that should not be broken.   Recent examples of the behaviours of Liberal/National Governments across Australia show that these commitments are honoured more in the breach.

Let's look at few examples of political lies that damage peoples livelihoods:

Support is building right across the country for Tas government workers who are on the receiving end of the worst attack seen in Australia so far. Tasmanian Public Sector workers’ living standards and their wages now, and in the future, are at stake. The Liberal Government have chosen a shameful abuse of legislative powers to override State Service Agreements and Awards.

NSW Premier Mike Baird is reported as telling a Sydney conference that he has earmarked performance pay for the public sector should he be re-elected in March 2015, in a move the Public Service Association of NSW (PSA) believes will create inequity and nepotism while further undermining the independence of the public service.  “On the back of the restrictive Senior Officer contracts that are currently being rolled out, whereby employees can be sacked for no stated reason, the move towards performance pay will further undermine the service,” said Acting PSA General Secretary, Steve Turner. 

WITH shameless disrespect for its workforce, Tasmania’s new Liberal Government has announced a pay freeze for public sector workers via a strategic leak to a media outlet and an address to Devonport’s business community.  Public sector workers have already agreed to significant wage restraint over the last two rounds of bargaining but despite legally binding Awards and Agreements covering wages and conditions the government has signaled it’ll break those contracts and refuse to uphold its end of the bargain.  “Today’s announcement is a slap in the face for hard working Tasmanians”, CPSU Act

Western Australia's politicians, judges and senior public servants will receive pay rises prompting calls for the Government to revise its offer to the State's 30,000 public servants.  Under a ruling by the Salaries and Allowances Tribunal, Members of Parliament will receive a flat increase of $5,585, meaning the Premier's salary will increase by 1.6 per cent, and a backbencher's will rise by 3.8 per cent.  The change brings a backbencher's salary to $154,223 per annum.  A 2.5 per cent increase will be applied to the salaries of the state judiciary, while senior public servants will receive

Members are notified that on Friday 20 June 2014 the CPSU(SPSF) made an application to insert a new rule 36 into our Chapter C Rules.

Wikileaks release confirms alarm raised by Public Services International

Wikileaks today released secret draft text from the Trades in Services Agreement negotiations that confirms the concerns first raised by the global trade union Public Services International in the recent ground-breaking report ‘TISA versus Public Services.’

Federal Government budget cuts particularly in the health sector has forced the South Australian Government to propose further job losses in the State sector.  The Government proposes 4105 jobs to be cut, by 2018 comparing to their pre-election statement of 3,815 by 2017.  Wage growth has been budgeted at 2.5% p.a.

The jobs of more than 1,500 Tasmanian public servants could be cut between now and 2018 after the new Government announced plans to axe 1,000 extra public sector jobs.  The State Government has revealed 1,000 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs could be cut from the public service over the next four years and it appears that is number is on top of the 500 full-time equivalent positions the Liberals pledged to axe by natural attrition

After 3 years of austerity budgets from conservative Coalition State Governments in QLD, NSW, W.A., and Victoria an $80billion shortfall being now forced onto States by federal budget cuts will have a cascading effect across all our state delivered services.  Just two weeks ago the Premiers met with the Prime Minister at COAG to discuss what Mr Abbott refers to as ‘new federalism’.  COAG discussed budgets and taxation, funding for various program including health and education.  COAG even put out a