By Paul Oboohov
MELBOURNE — Last week, the National Delegates' Committee of the Community and Public Sector Union in the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs met to discuss its response to the proposal by the Howard government to corporatise the Commonwealth Employment Service.
The plan is to place CES staff in a corporatised body (the Public Employment Placement Enterprise or PEPE) in direct competition with private employment agencies. The response of the NDC has been to develop a log of claims, which was recently circulated through DEETYA workplace meetings.
The log covers almost every conceivable issue but dodges the crucial one of whether "employment placement" should be privatised. It is also silent on whether the CPSU as a whole (and not just CPSU members in DEETYA) should be fighting for the future of the CES, and what strategy would have the best chance of winning.
The approach has already produced a lot of disquiet among CPSU members in DEETYA. While the log of claims is not inconsistent with a fight to keep employment placement public, it doesn't put forward any strategy that could stop the government agenda. As a result, CPSU members have rightly been getting the message that they're dealing with another retreat camouflaged by impeccable statements of position and militant noise.
To sound the alarm, I have been circulating a position within DEETYA that calls for a campaign across the entire Australian Public Service. As the preamble to the petition puts it: "In the same way that DEETYA and DSS staff are starting to grasp that there is no basis to presume that the government will stop its privatisation agenda once the CES is gone, the rest of the APS needs to grasp that there is nothing special about DEETYA/DSS. The same method can be applied." The petition also demands that the CPSU use the strength of the whole union (especially in revenue-gathering areas).
The petition is generating a remarkable response, winning support from CES and other DEETYA offices all over Australia. Local delegates have contacted me to express their support for a genuine campaign to save the CES and their bitterness with the lack of direction from the Wendy Caird leadership of the CPSU.
Because of this, I was the subject of a motion of censure at the NDC meeting for distributing the petition and breaking unity on supposedly unanimous support for the log of claims approach. Moreover, a motion put by me to commit the NDC to the CPSU-wide strategy failed for want of a seconder while the amended log of claims was passed. (It will now go to the CPSU national executive to be put to DEETYA meetings in the week of September 30.)
The DEETYA NDC also met with two members of the Department of Social Security NDC to discuss a joint approach to Howard's plan for a "one-stop shop" social security agency. The NDC learned that DSS management has confirmed that new starters will simply be offered two-year contracts instead of public service conditions. A joint statement of principles aimed at keeping DSS and DEETYA service delivery within the public service, and maintaining public service conditions and pay, was worked on at the meeting. The DEETYA NDC unanimously ratified it, and the DSS NDC will also debate the statement and vote on it.
It seems the DSS NDC may also be going down the path of an agency-specific log of claims, given the beginnings of a draft circulated at the DEETYA NDC. Again, it was a motherhood statement that no-one would oppose, but continued the procedure of avoiding the point that the Caird leadership has developed to a high degree.
It is clear that the DEETYA NDC is well out of touch with the feeling in CES offices. The campaign to bring it into line will continue and, given the response to date, has a strong chance of winning.
[Paul Oboohov is the ACT delegate on the DEETYA NDC.]