The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has publicly released its list of claims lodged under industrial bargaining arrangements as temperatures rise in the battle between the government and the public service union over wages and conditions in the face of mass retrenchments.
With the present workplace agreement set to expire on 30 June 2014, the Abbott government has essentially told the CPSU and public servants it now expects them to trade-off leave and other entitlements or cop a wage freeze that amounts to a pay cut after inflation is taken into account.
The CPSU has put job security at the very top of its wish list, saying that it wants to “give everyone who wants to stay in the public service the best chance to do so.”
Specifically, the union is seeking to do away with forced redundancies and controversial spill-and-fill processes as well as maintaining and protecting existing redundancy provisions.
The listing of protection of redundancy entitlements and provisions is significant because it suggests that the union is not prepared to give ground on previously accrued entitlements that could be devalued if otherwise redundant public servants accept offers of work at a lesser grade without a termination payment.
The tactic has prompted the CPSU to push for improved redeployment arrangements “including job swaps” as well as “broad expression of interest processes for voluntary redundancy.”
Another key claim is that all entitlements must be “included in enforceable agreements” with “access to an independent umpire to resolve disputes along with union representation.
The CPSU’s most controversial claim is a 4 per cent pay rise “each year for three years” as well as back-pay to cover the government’s delays.
Second last on the list is the maintenance of the generous 15.4 per cent superannuation rate (for those entitled to it) that has become a such financial millstone around the neck of successive governments it prompted the sell off of Telstra.
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