Tax staff support bad agreement

MELBOURNE -- The Australian Tax Office management's draft enterprise agreement was accepted by 79.6% of staff who voted in a ballot taken between July 13 and 15. Fifty-six per cent of staff voted in the ballot. The agreement will now go to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission for certification.

The controversial agreement was being put to staff for a second time, after 62% rejected it in the first vote. Unlike the first time round, the Community and Public Sector Union supported the agreement in the second vote, although there were few changes to the draft put forward by management. Many CPSU members voted to accept the second agreement on the basis that it now provided the union with a role in its implementation.

Union members campaigning against the agreement pointed to the increased management powers to sack staff, contract out work and harass individual workers. Even the CPSU acknowledged it to be a bad agreement. Activists in the CPSU campaigned against the agreement within the union, and following the union's internal vote, among staff generally, along with the Australian Services Union which has members in some tax offices.

In Melbourne, activists from the ASU and the CPSU opposition caucus Members First handed out leaflets which presented the case against the agreement outside tax offices. Despite this, only 20.4% of staff voted against, as compared to 24% in the CPSU internal vote on the agreement. 

Tools

• Bookmark This Page
• Print This Page