Agency bargaining revived in HSH

Issue 

Agency bargaining revived in HSH

By Phil Shannon

CANBERRA — Agency bargaining in the Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health (HSH) has been resurrected from near death by the national officials of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).

Work bans are in place in some workplaces in some state offices with the aim of reaching an agency bargaining deal with management. Despite a union members' meeting here two weeks ago which voted to reject agency bargaining, the combined tally of the state meetings was in favour of imposing bans on administrative and other changes.

Members in the state offices have heard only the official "magic pudding" version of agency bargaining, and union members in the states were thus always likely to vote in favour of agency bargaining.

By contrast, in Canberra, in the only meeting where both sides of the agency bargaining story were heard, agency bargaining fell in a heap.

The CPSU national officials have now stepped in with the clear intention of forcing a deal in HSH before the December deadline for agency bargaining agreements in the Australian public service.

Although it was not clear during the recent round of members' meetings that the bans were in support of agency bargaining, this is how they have been interpreted by National Executive, which has subsequently authorised additional industrial action at individual workplaces. These developments, taken without reference to the national delegates' committee or the Canberra delegates' committee, demonstrate the national officials' determination to stitch up a deal.

Nevertheless, the sudden flurry to put on industrial action has to confront the fact of widespread disinterest and passive opposition to agency bargaining in Canberra, where the majority of CPSU members are. The danger is that if this opposition remains passive, the national officials will be able to get a positive vote nationally on a deal that sells off jobs and conditions.

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