Public sector workers to strike against redundancies

BY JAMES CRAFTI

MELBOURNE — The Victorian education department has threatened to sack several hundred staff.

Education workers have been threatened by the department with the loss of up to 400 jobs since August. The threat spilled over into the cross-agency negotiations for a new enterprise agreement, as the previous one elapsed on November 1.

Then, on November 5, the department informed the industrial relations commission they were planning to sack 275 workers.

Community and Public Sector Union-State Public Service Federation (CPSU-SPSF) secretary Karen Batt told Green Left Weekly that this is a reduction of the workforce by 22-25%, taking it down to levels that haven't been seen since the previous Liberal government of Jeff Kennett, who was voted out of office in 1999 .

The broader enterprise bargaining agreement being negotiated between public sector workers and the state government has hit the wall as well, with the government refusing to budge on workers' modest request for a 3% pay increase, despite the government reporting a budget surplus of $600 million dollars earlier this year.

Department workers are planning a stop-work meeting on November 11 unless the government changes its mind, which according to Batt appears unlikely. A 24-hour strike is planned for November 17. The action is timed to coincide with the first day of processing of year 12 exam results. All sections of the education department plan to shut down for the day.

Batt says all education sectors are affected by the planned redundancies, which will overload public sector workers.

From Green Left Weekly, November 12, 2003.

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From GLW issue 561