By Nick Everett
Negotiations are under way over an agreement to cover staff employed in the federal government's new Commonwealth services delivery agency (CSDA), Centrelink. Centrelink, to be launched in September, will replace the Department of Social Security as the provider of income support payments and take on some of the services previously provided by the Commonwealth Employment Service.
Central to the government's agenda is outsourcing. the CSDA's new CEO, is charged with implementing a 15% cut in running costs and delivering a 3% dividend to consolidated revenue.
Minister for social security has warned that if the CSDA fails to become the most efficient provider of social security payments within two years, the federal government will "look elsewhere".
With the agency bargaining agreement for DSS having expired, the government wants a certified agreement for staff in the CSDA as soon as possible.
Government demands for the CSDA include: an increase in opening hours, including on public holidays; a reduction in staff client-free time; the removal of higher duties allowance; productivity bonuses instead of wage rises; a reduction in overtime; and reduced access to paid leave.
The CSDA is proposing to stop Wednesday afternoon closures, the only time for regional office staff to participate in training, hold meetings and catch up on work — which gets behind because successive governments have failed to hire more staff despite the increasing workload.
Staff would be asked to work public holidays, supposedly on a voluntary basis, and for up to 10 hours per day at the discretion of a manager. The CSDA's call centres will be open from 8am to 5pm (currently 8.30am to 4.30pm).
The CSDA also proposes to replace flex time with a system of "regular hours" negotiated between staff and supervisors. While management claims that increased work hours will be voluntary, the intention is to staff offices over longer hours without having to pay overtime.
The CSDA argues that increased opening hours are all about improving "customer service", but the government's record suggests otherwise. In March it introduced a two-year payment waiting period for newly arrived migrants; it has cut child-care assistance subsidies and announced that it will abolish the youth training allowance and replace unemployment benefits for people under 21 with a youth allowance assessed on parental income.
Upon signing the CSDA's proposed agreement, workers will receive a one-off $300 bonus. A second bonus would be offered in workplaces that achieve a satisfactory cut in sick leave.
The CSDA's offer of two 2% pay rises over two years is also dependent on staff achieving targets, including arbitrary "productivity improvement" measures, and the agency as a whole meeting its reduced budget.
The Community and Public Sector Union's bargaining position has been severely weakened by its national leadership's retreat from a campaign to secure public sector-wide conditions.
CPSU leaders failed to mobilise the membership in support of jobs and conditions, only calling on members for a single one-day stoppage in July 1996.
Despite the success of this action, the brakes were applied as the Wendy Caird leadership retreated in the face of the Workplace Relations Act even before it became law. Members were asked in July to support a motion to "refocus our campaign to achieving agreements at an agency level".
From the outset, the CPSU DSS section executive accepted the parameters set by CSDA management, circulating a discussion paper asking members to consider increased opening hours even before the proposal had been formally put by management.
The CPSU's log of claims left out opening hours because the section secretary, Mark Gepp, claimed there was no agreement amongst members. Wednesday afternoon closures were abandoned by the CPSU officials on the basis that they are "unwinnable". The CPSU's negotiating position for call centres has been that members want increased opening hours, although no such position has been voted on.
With the possibility of privatisation, or part-privatisation, of the social security system in the next few years, the CPSU needs to challenge the government's arguments that the CSDA must operate as a business organisation.
CPSU members will need to organise across the public sector and with other unions for the retention of government services and the creation of public sector jobs. A campaign for a decent, equitable social security system is particularly important.
Within the union, networks of activists are challenging the class-collaborationist approach of the Caird leadership and rebuilding rank and file participation. The National Challenge network has presented a platform of opposition to the leadership's agency bargaining agenda over several years.
In Brisbane, in July, a new network of rank and file activists adopted the objectives of democratising the union, building solidarity across agencies and building a fighting union. Only this type of determination by members to take back control of their union and run an effective industrial campaign will defeat the government's reactionary agenda.
[Nick Everett is a delegate in the CSDA and a member of the Democratic Socialist Party.]