ACTU President Ged Kearney’s International Women’s Day Address
A tribute to the past and a challenge to the future from ACTU President Ged Kearney.
A tribute to the past and a challenge to the future from ACTU President Ged Kearney.
Cuts to public sector jobs are driving a rise in unemployment and putting pressure on services
Monday, 18 February 2013
Download ACTU media release
New research by the ACTU reveals that the number of public sector jobs in Australia has fallen for
the first time in more than a decade after Coalition state governments last year sacked tens of
thousands of workers and made harsh cuts to public services.
More than 50,000 public administration and safety jobs were lost around the country in the year
to November 2012, with about half of those cuts taking place between May and November as
state governments in New South Wales and Queensland executed radical job cuts. And more job
losses are on the way as state governments foreshadow further deep cuts to their wages bills.
The ACTU Jobs Report found that employment in public administration and safety fell by 6.9% – by
far the biggest yearly fall in employment in that industry on record going back to 1984 – with these
cuts to public services being a major factor in the rise in Australia’s unemployment rate.
ACTU President Ged Kearney said cutting public servants had led to more pressure on vital
services like health and education and an impact on unemployment rates.
“The Federal Government, as well Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and WA, and local
governments, have reduced the size of their public sector,” Ms Kearney said.
“This is likely to continue this financial year, and into 2013-14. For example the Newman
Government in Queensland only took office in March and the bulk of their savage cuts took effect
in the second half of 2012.”
“Cutting public sector workers is a short-sighted policy which will lead to reduced services for all
Australians. Many of the workers who lose their jobs will spend long periods of time in
unemployment.
“What is most concerning is that Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey have said they will slash 20,000
Commonwealth government jobs as soon as they are elected, and are looking for savings of more
than $50 billion.”
The National Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, Nadine Flood, said public
sector workers were fiercely proud of the work they do, but warned Australia’s world-class public
service is under threat from conservative politicians at the State and Federal level, keen to make
deep budget cuts.
“With the public sector already under pressure, cuts like those put forward by Tony Abbott will
severely damage public services in Australia,” Ms Flood said. “No matter how the Coalition tries to
spin it, deep cuts to the public sector mean cuts to the services that Australians rely on.”
Ms Kearney said that the ACTU’s analysis of unemployment data showed that while the official
unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent had stayed steady over the last three months, the total
number of hours worked had dropped.
The ACTU’s Jobs Report for February is available in the Publications section at www.actu.org.au
Media contacts: Ben Ruse (ACTU) 0409 510 879; Julian Lee (CPSU) 0409 493 290
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
by the Australian Council of Trade Unions
The ACTU calls for a real and extensive discussion on job security, following the Prime Minister
Julia Gillard’s announcement of a date for the federal Election and a commitment to focus on jobs.
ACTU President, Ged Kearney, said the PM’s surprise announcement should be the trigger to
intensifying discussion around issues Australian’s care about the most.
“As Australians mark September 14 in their calendars as the date for this year’s Federal Election
they will be hoping that the time has finally come to discuss job and income security,” Ms Kearney
said.
“The Unions Australia call centre received thousands of calls over the past 12 months from people
concerned about their pay rates, job security and unfair rostering.”
“That’s what people will want to know. Will their jobs support them, their families and their
future? That’s what the discussion about secure work entails; ensuring fair pay, conditions and
career opportunities.”
Now that we know when the election will be held there is no excuse for Tony Abbott to withhold
information about his plans for Australian workplaces and job security, she said.
“We want to know where you stand on worker’s right, Mr Abbott.”
Ms Kearney said she was pleased the PM has identified industry policy, secure jobs and balancing
work and caring for families in her Press Club speech today, and she welcomed a further and more
extensive public discussion.
“The PM also rightly pointed to global pressures that affects Australia but while we can’t control
the globe, we can influence the policies and laws that protect and serve the Australian people, the
most important of which is fairness in the workplace.”
Media contact: Eleni Hale 0418 793 885
The PSA/CPSU takes a serious view of insecure work and its negative impact on the lives of workers.
In higher education we have fought hard for many years to embed strong provisions in our agreements to allow casuals and fixed term employees to convert to continuing employment.
However, even with the best clauses in awards or agreements if an employer lacks the good will to provide secure work then workers will continue to be disadvantaged.
Recently we went into bat for a member employed at one university.
“Our member has worked there for six years,” said PSA/CPSU Organiser Phoebe Dangerfield, “and for the last three years she has worked a 60-hour fortnight. They applied for conversion to a fulltime continuing position and this was knocked back on the basis that the work was ad hoc and/or intermittent.”
“It’s difficult to fathom how a 60-hour fortnight for three years straight can be regarded as ad hoc or intermittent work.”
The PSA/CPSU continues to advocate for our member.
We have secured an understanding from the manager in the area that the advent of longer term contracts will create opportunity for more secure employment.
In another instance, an employee at a TAFE worked for five years in a position landed through a labour hire agency which meant no holiday pay, sick leave or any of the other entitlements other TAFE employees receive.
In his fifth year he successfully applied for a temporary position and he has now been working in various areas at the college for over ten years.
But every six months for the past decade he still waits to see if he receives a letter to indicate that his position will continue.
Unfortunately he is only one of hundreds of long term temporary employees in TAFE.
Incredibly, many long-term temporaries have been working for the organisation for over 20 years.
Each is a highly valuable worker who has the experience and institutional knowledge that TAFE relies upon to provide a high standard of educational service to the community.
TAFE should be setting higher standards not adding to lousy statistics.
These are just two examples of the many instances of insecure forms of employment in higher education.
The detrimental consequences are well known and include:
• the inability to plan in advance
• lack of access to superannuation, paid sick leave or carer’s leave
• difficulty getting leases or securing a home loan
• the inability to access professional development opportunities.
A recent European study suggests that ongoing temporary work actually damages workers’ health. If these findings hold in the Australian context, then the public purse is presumably carrying the burden of these additional health costs, while private sector corporations profit from labour hire and contracting out of public sector work.
This is another example of privatising profit and socialising losses.
The CPSU (SPSF Group) has made a submission to the ACTU’s Independent Inquiry into Insecure Employment.
The submission can be viewed at
https://securejobs.org.au/submissions/22_feb_2012/CPSU- SPSF.pdf