The CSIRO Staff Association has slammed the latest proposed cuts to jobs in vital research areas of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s premier public scientific body.
The union warned of job redundancies in minerals research and the Sydney laboratory that helped invent wifi internet technology.
The CSIRO Staff Association said 42 scientists working in the research organisation's mineral resources unit, and 15 from Sydney's Marsfield laboratory, would be made redundant following scores of job cuts since the Coalition came to government in 2013.
“The total CSIRO staff numbers at Perth’s Waterford laboratory are 44, putting this site — if the proposed cuts are implemented — at increased risk of consolidation or closure,” association secretary Sam Poposvski said, according to the September 15 Canberra Times.
“More than 100 jobs in mineral research have already been lost and these further cuts illustrate how government funding is grossly deficient in allowing CSIRO to cope with short term market fluctuations impacting on revenue from industry.
“CSIRO needs to go back to being what Australians want: a trusted, government-funded leader in research for the public good, and supporting local jobs in our key industries including agriculture, environment, technology, energy manufacturing.”
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