Union backdown on tax office agreement
BY CHRIS SLEE
MELBOURNE — Unionists in the Australian Taxation Office have ended their industrial campaign after voting on June 27 to accept a recommendation by the tax section council of the Community and Public Sector Union to accept a management offer for a new agency agreement.
The same management offer had previously been rejected by CPSU members as inadequate. It includes a pay rise of 4% per year — less than the expected rate of inflation following the introduction of the GST. The pay rise is conditional on staff meeting targets for revenue collection, service standards, "professionalism" and successful implementation of the GST.
The CPSU had run a successful "vote no" campaign after management put its offer to a staff vote without the union's agreement in June. Union officials became worried, however, when the narrow margin — only 50.4% voted no — encouraged management to put the same offer again.
CPSU officials became concerned that they would not be so successful in a second vote and that, if the union wasn't party to the new agreement, it could lose members to the smaller Australian Services Union, which had backed the deal in the June vote.
Members First, an opposition group within the CPSU, argued that the union should continue with the industrial campaign, including a strike on July 3. A Members First leaflet argued "We are in a strong position to win an industrial campaign. Strike action disrupting the GST — and particularly a strike on July 3 — would be a huge embarrassment to [taxation commissioner Michael] Carmody and the government".
Its stance struck a chord with some unionists — 31% of those voting on June 27 rejected officials' endorsement of the new agreement.
Members First has since published another leaflet criticising the union leadership's conduct of the campaign and arguing for the need to "rebuild the CPSU into a fighting union that stands up to the bosses' attacks".