Tax staff vote on agreement

BY CHRIS SLEE

On October 30, Australian Taxation Office (ATO) staff began to vote on a new agency agreement. Voting will close on November 7. Opponents of the agreement, including supporters of the Members First group within the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), are campaigning vigorously for a "no" vote.

The proposed agreement attacks flextime rights and gives management the power to order staff to work at any time between 8am and 6pm. It fails to guarantee job security. While it offers a pay rise of 8.5% over two years, most of this is conditional on meeting increased productivity targets.

The CPSU agreed to become a party to the agreement after gaining minor concessions. CPSU officials feared that if they did not, ATO management would do a separate deal with the ultra-conservative tax division of the Australian Services Union.

From Green Left Weekly, November 6, 2002.

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From GLW issue 515