Tax office workers campaign for job security

By Chris Slee Members of the tax office division of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) held a national strike on January 24, following the breakdown of negotiations on a new industrial agreement. Russell Pickering reports from Wollongong that the majority of the 250 workers at the tax office supported the strike and took the day off, despite an intensive propaganda campaign by management. A campaign of bans starts on January 29, and a mass meeting will be held at the Ironworkers Hall on January 30. Some 20 tax office workers and fellow unionists picketed the Brisbane city tax office on January 24, coinciding with the national strike. Displaying placards reading, "Picket line, Union members don't cross", "Say no to shiftwork", "Leave study alone" and "Say no to compulsion", the workers urged staff arriving at the office not to enter. The key issues in dispute include job security and forced transfer between offices. Management is refusing to renew the guarantees of no compulsory redundancies and no forced transfers which were included in a previous agreement (the Tax Office Modernisation Agreement). Management has announced plans to transfer at least 200 workers from Casselden Place office in Melbourne's CBD to outer suburban Box Hill and Moonee Ponds during February. Other attacks planned by management include electronic monitoring of individual workers, cuts to accommodation standards and compulsory shift work. Stop-work meetings of tax office workers in December voted to strike on January 18. The CPSU tax division executive voted to postpone the strike until January 24 to allow time for further negotiations. However, management remained intransigent. The officials were forced to allow the strike to go ahead, despite their reluctance to embarrass the Labor government before the federal elections. A complicating factor has been rivalry between the CPSU and the Australian Services Union. The ASU has refused to support the CPSU's industrial action. Instead, it has gone to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to argue that the tax office has failed to follow correct procedures under the Public Service Act in its plans to transfer workers out of Casselden Place. The ASU won a ruling in its favour at an IRC hearing on January 23. A further IRC hearing will take place on February 6. The ASU's victory may give workers in Casselden Place some breathing space. However, reliance on the IRC is no substitute for a real strategy to fight the attacks. Such a strategy must include both industrial action and a political challenge to the neo-liberal policies of the Labor and Liberal parties. It is Labor's funding cuts that are the root cause of ATO management's drive to cut staff numbers and accommodation standards.