PSA response to Michael Coutts-Trotter’s “Telegraph” email

Dear members,

I would like to respond on your behalf to the email sent by Michael Coutts-Trotter on 1 August 2016 in relation to the serious matters raised by The Daily Telegraph.

Firstly and most importantly, I object, in the strongest possible terms, to the Secretary’s clear insinuation that the PSA and members in Community Services are liars.

Michael Coutts-Trotter should issue an unreserved apology immediately for smearing not only the character of this union but that of the outstanding individuals working at the Department who are simply seeking the very best for children in need.

This apology is made all the more pressing by the fact the Secretary admits in his email he has now received “some historic and some recent” accounts of children sleeping in offices overnight.

So what the PSA stated in the Telegraph was true. It was just the Secretary was somehow oblivious to the situation until the union raised the concerns.

Coutts-Trotter states “please don’t be worried” to reassure any member who speaks out but then goes on to lay down the law as a warning to anyone who dares to do so.

Caseworkers in Community Services do a wonderful highly professional job in unbelievably trying circumstances but they have their limits and sometimes are unable to sit back and be silent any longer.

The crisis situation reported in The Daily Telegraph was and remains fact not fabrication.

The PSA will always stand up for the rights of members in Community Services and those who so desperately depend upon their vital work.

 

Steve Turner
PSA Assistant General Secretary