Newman to axe 20,000 public servants
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said on June 20 that the state had 20,000 public sector staff it could not afford, based on a report by former federal treasurer Peter Costello. In this year’s election campaign, Newman promised there would be no public sector forced redundancies if he was elected.
Sixty thousand Queensland public servants have been offered a 2.2% yearly pay rises. Alex Scott, the state secretary of public service union Together, said the offer amounted to “a pay cut” in real terms. The Labor opposition says that the number of job losses could reach 55,000.
Queensland teachers also rallied on June 21, rejecting the Newman government’s 2.7% pay rise offer.
La Trobe latest uni to slash staff, courses
La Trobe University management is proposing to cut staff and end more than half the university’s subjects, targeting humanities and social sciences.
La Trobe’s dean, Tim Murray, put forward a plan that would cut subjects from 913 to just 400. Subjects that would go include linguistics, gender studies and art history. Up to 45 humanities and social sciences staff would also be axed.
The National Tertiary Education Union is angry that the proposal would see an increase in staff casualisation. Management say the cuts are necessary to meet “a 3% return on revenue”.
The La Trobe cuts echo university management moves at Sydney University, the Australian National University, the University of NSW and Macquarie University, where cuts to courses and staff have sparked staff and student campaigns to defend education.
Firefighters’ strike wins limited reforms
In what the NSW firefighters union says is the first time its members have gone on general strike since 1956, thousands walked off the job on June 21 to protest the state government’s cuts to workers compensation.
About 250 fire stations shut down from 1pm to 6pm. Firefighters used a water cannon to hose down the “political stench” from NSW parliament. The Fire Brigade Employees' Union was especially angry that police, but not firefighters, were exempted from the cuts to coverage for sick and injured workers.
As a result of the bold industrial action, NSW parliament voted to accept a Greens amendment that extended the exemptions to firefighters and ambulance officers.
However, all other workers now have far less compensation cover. The new laws cut injury pay and cap compensation payments. Most workers will be cut off medical payments completely after a year — regardless of whether they have recovered.
The government has also scrapped compensation for workers hurt during travel to and from work in most cases. The workers compensation changes are retrospective, affecting workers who are currently sick or injured.
