SA public sector plans campaign
By Trish Corcoran
and Melanie Sjoberg
ADELAIDE — a mass meeting in the Festival Theatre on May 12 was the first major response by the unions to recent attacks from the state government.
Speakers were Gail Gago, secretary of the Australian Nurses Foundation, Clare McCarty, president of the South Australian Institute of Teachers, Jan McMahon, general secretary of the Public Service Association and Mick Tumbers, secretary of the Amalgamated Metalworkers and Engineering Union.
McCarty outlined three main steps in the government attacks. First was the economic statement; this included the loss of 3000 public sector jobs, 1500 by June 30. Over the next three years, the government plans to cut a total of 9000 jobs.
Second was public sector reform. This proposes fewer permanent staff and more casuals; changed employment practices, undermining penalty provisions; extended opening hours, forcing employees to work weekends or rosters without proper payment.
The third was enterprise bargaining. Among other things, this aims to remove the right to take industrial action, force acceptance of eroded services and budget cuts, and not guarantee penalty rates.
The present job losses are in the form of voluntary "Targeted Separation Packages", or TSPs. To get the payment, workers have to agree not to preserve their existing superannuation entitlement. The new lump sum is less than the employer-funded benefit would be if workers preserved their benefit.
The plan is also to sell state-owned assets and reduce the number of departments from 30 to 12. This will erode public services, despite the government's rhetoric of making the public sector more "efficient".
McMahon detailed a three-pronged campaign the union is planning in response to the attacks: " industrial, political and community".
Industrial action is directed primarily at the government and is trying to avoid affecting the public: for example, bans on the collection of revenue. Each workplace is deciding on particular actions.
The political aspect will be negotiations with the government. The government went ahead with its proposals without any consultation with the unions, so they are demanding a halt to the process until negotiations have occurred.
Unions are also aiming to get community support, realising that it will be the community's services that will be affected by the attacks. In describing the campaign to Green Left Weekly, Jan McMahon said that the members were showing "overwhelming support". When asked about the proposed redundancy packages, which are offering eight weeks pay plus three weeks for every year of service, she said "the motions endorsed at the meeting included the proposal not to cooperate with any employer initiated changes".
Gail Gago, also told Green Left that there would be strong support within the union but that they had not had workplace meetings, to date. The government had several proposed reforms for the health sector, including devolution of mental health and the implementation of automated rostering. She said the ANF would pursue a course of non-cooperation.