Queensland public servants stop work

Queensland public servants stop work

By Jim McIlroy

BRISBANE — Federal public servants throughout Queensland stopped work for half a day on May 29 as part of the Community and Public Sector Union's national campaign to protect Australian Public Service jobs and conditions.

The stoppage followed walkouts in other states and territories on previous days that week and mass meetings of CPSU members which voted to escalate the union's campaign to pressure the Howard government to negotiate an APS-wide agreement to protect service-wide employment conditions and wages.

The federal government is insisting on agreements to cover individual agencies only, thus dividing the work force and destroying a unified public service.

Under these proposed agreements, such as the one currently under discussion in the new Commonwealth Service Delivery Agency, wage rises are linked solely to productivity; hours of work are being extended; powers of local management to enforce work discipline are being increased; leave entitlements are under attack; and hiring and firing will be made easier, among many other controversial proposals.

On the May 29 half-day strike, public servants in Brisbane held a Link for Solidarity, which extended halfway around the Australian Government Centre at Terrica Place in the centre of the city, to express their support for the CPSU campaign.

Similar protests took place in Townsville, Cairns and other Queensland cities.

From GLW issue 277