SA information jobs to go

By Rhonda Williamson

ADELAIDE -- The Australian Small Business Association recently forecast a dramatic increase in bankruptcies over the next two years, due to an expected influx of thousands of ex-public servants into the small business area.

The state budget included $250 million for targeted separation packages for state government employees. However, the government seems to forget these thousands of lost jobs when it announces additional spending on job creation schemes and industry incentive packages.

The government's version of economic “rationalism” dictates wholesale privatisation of the government's information technology (IT). The winner of the “outsourcing” contract for most government IT work will soon be announced. The government has ignored warnings from its own IT staff, and concerns expressed by local IT businesses, about several aspects of the outsourcing strategy.

Overseas and interstate privatisation have shown that major job losses occur in the process, as well as a lessening of job security, wages and conditions for those who remain employed.

The state government is now positioning itself to deal with future public sector retrenchments by introducing legislation to further weaken individual workers and unions. Its latest position on enterprise bargaining in the public sector includes reducing the life of agreements from three years to one, with other employment conditions negotiable.

A concern within the Public Service is that the procedures and policies developed to deal with the conditions and transfer of IT staff during outsourcing will apply to all future privatisations.

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