Premier Mike Baird has introduced a regulation that terminates the redundancy entitlements of public servants who are transferred to the non-government sector.
NSW Labor has moved to block the regulation and unions have vowed to fight the plan they say will treat public servants "like serfs".
"Clearly, this regulation has been put through so the government can privatise public services and do it cheaply," Public Service Association general secretary Anne Gardiner said.
"It's appalling that the biggest employer in the country would treat their workers like they are property and hand them over to the private sector without the employee having any say in the matter. These people are public servants, not public serfs, and the government should be the gold standard for employers."
Ms Gardiner said her 35,000 members, who are among public servants potentially affected, will fight the regulation .
The regulation strips public servants of entitlements to severance or redundancy payments if their services are transferred to the non-government sector.
The regulation says a government employee whose employment is transferred to the non-government sector "is not entitled to any severance or redundancy payment for the cessation of employment if the person is offered comparable employment by the non-government sector body".
The government said the regulation merely updates a similar memo introduced in 1992. However, unlike the new regulation, the old memo still provided an option for redundancy and redeployment provisions.
While the new regulation requires a new employer to recognise an employee's years of service, unions and NSW Labor's industrial relations spokesman Adam Searle fear a new employer is unlikely to pay the same level of redundancy payments that the government currently offers.
Mr Searle moved a motion in the NSW Parliament this week to disallow the new regulation, which was proclaimed on Friday.
He said the government was seeking to avoid its "obligations as a responsible employer" and it had introduced the regulation "without any announcement or consultation with affected employees or their unions".
"Mr Baird has drastically cut these valuable rights – that people have already earned – with the stroke of a pen. This will deprive workers of the means to obtain retraining for new work opportunities."
Mr Searle said the NSW government was in the process of privatising public works and transport operations and the Land and Property Information Service.
"This regulation means the government can transfer workers to non-government employment when it sells a business or outsources operations, so any redundancy payments are paid at the level of the new employer, which are typically much lower," he said.
Rita Mallia, NSW president of the CFMEU, said it represents 115 public works employees, some of whom have worked with public works for 30 years, facing privatisation of their jobs.
"The workers are being told their jobs are gone and they have to apply for whatever jobs are available in the private sector. But there is no redundancy payment available to them if they choose not to do that," she said.
Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said he was concerned public sector workers were being forced into the private sector without any guarantee of the same level of redundancy entitlements they had accumulated over years.
He said the government had until now offered "structural adjustment packages", which provided an extra payment in lieu of existing government redundancy provisions including access to retraining and redeployment within the public sector. He said there was no guarantee the non-government sector would offer entitlements similar to the government's in the long term.
"Our concern is that if private providers make them redundant, they will have no option to be retrained and will have lost an entitlement for a better redundancy package. It is retrospective and there was no consultation over this," Mr Morey said.
Greens MP David Shoebridge said the Greens would support Labor's disallowance motion "because no one should be forced to move from being a public servant to working for a private corporation against their will".
"This is the Baird government trying to get privatisation on the cheap and making its workforce pay the savings," Mr Shoebridge said.
NSW Labor has moved to block the regulation and unions have vowed to fight the plan they say will treat public servants "like serfs".
"Clearly, this regulation has been put through so the government can privatise public services and do it cheaply," Public Service Association general secretary Anne Gardiner said.
"It's appalling that the biggest employer in the country would treat their workers like they are property and hand them over to the private sector without the employee having any say in the matter. These people are public servants, not public serfs, and the government should be the gold standard for employers."
Ms Gardiner said her 35,000 members, who are among public servants potentially affected, will fight the regulation .
The regulation strips public servants of entitlements to severance or redundancy payments if their services are transferred to the non-government sector.
The regulation says a government employee whose employment is transferred to the non-government sector "is not entitled to any severance or redundancy payment for the cessation of employment if the person is offered comparable employment by the non-government sector body".
The government said the regulation merely updates a similar memo introduced in 1992. However, unlike the new regulation, the old memo still provided an option for redundancy and redeployment provisions.
While the new regulation requires a new employer to recognise an employee's years of service, unions and NSW Labor's industrial relations spokesman Adam Searle fear a new employer is unlikely to pay the same level of redundancy payments that the government currently offers.
Mr Searle moved a motion in the NSW Parliament this week to disallow the new regulation, which was proclaimed on Friday.
He said the government was seeking to avoid its "obligations as a responsible employer" and it had introduced the regulation "without any announcement or consultation with affected employees or their unions".
"Mr Baird has drastically cut these valuable rights – that people have already earned – with the stroke of a pen. This will deprive workers of the means to obtain retraining for new work opportunities."
Mr Searle said the NSW government was in the process of privatising public works and transport operations and the Land and Property Information Service.
"This regulation means the government can transfer workers to non-government employment when it sells a business or outsources operations, so any redundancy payments are paid at the level of the new employer, which are typically much lower," he said.
Rita Mallia, NSW president of the CFMEU, said it represents 115 public works employees, some of whom have worked with public works for 30 years, facing privatisation of their jobs.
"The workers are being told their jobs are gone and they have to apply for whatever jobs are available in the private sector. But there is no redundancy payment available to them if they choose not to do that," she said.
Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said he was concerned public sector workers were being forced into the private sector without any guarantee of the same level of redundancy entitlements they had accumulated over years.
He said the government had until now offered "structural adjustment packages", which provided an extra payment in lieu of existing government redundancy provisions including access to retraining and redeployment within the public sector. He said there was no guarantee the non-government sector would offer entitlements similar to the government's in the long term.
"Our concern is that if private providers make them redundant, they will have no option to be retrained and will have lost an entitlement for a better redundancy package. It is retrospective and there was no consultation over this," Mr Morey said.
Greens MP David Shoebridge said the Greens would support Labor's disallowance motion "because no one should be forced to move from being a public servant to working for a private corporation against their will".
"This is the Baird government trying to get privatisation on the cheap and making its workforce pay the savings," Mr Shoebridge said.
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