The national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), Nadine Flood, said with three-quarters of the public service involved, the action represents the most widespread dispute in the sector in 25 years.
And she described the Abbott government’s stance as “the nastiest position of any major employer in Australia”.
“Not a single worker has got a pay rise because of the government’s intransigence in bargaining,” Flood said.
“After the government has slashed public services and jobs to then go after workers’ rights and real wages is causing deep anger.
“As a result public service workers will be taking stop-work action and moving towards a real effort to talk to community.”
Unions say the recent management offers include the removal of rights such as the right to be consulted about major changes in the workplace and flexible working arrangements. Workers could also see reduced hours for part-time workers and penalties removed for antisocial shifts.
The CSIRO is just one agency that has already borne the brunt of deep cuts – $115m –from last year’s budget. Its staff association spokesman, Sam Popovski, said that amounted to a loss of 20% of staff over two years. From a high two years ago of 6,500, the organisation will settle at 5,200 jobs this year.
Its industrial action includes not working unpaid overtime, not responding to voicemails unless there is a health and safety issue, not attending face-to-face meetings with management, and not logging efficiency data which requires scientists to record “effort logs”.
Scientists must log their hours for each project they work on, which is on average four at any one time. Staff members who do not comply are disciplined. Popovski said the industrial action was designed to target management red tape (which was a key 2013 election commitment of the Abbott government).
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