PSA again rejects government proposal to sack you easily

The PSA has once again rejected the government’s proposal to make it easy to sack public sector employees by deleting Appendix 1 - Redeployment, Retraining and Redundancy (RRR) from your Enterprise Agreement.

This latest rejection follows the government tabling a draft version of their proposed replacement policy (marked confidential draft) for discussion at the Enterprise Bargaining General Meeting for the salaried enterprise agreement held yesterday afternoon (8 July 2020). The government’s proposal waters down Appendix 1 RRR from the current 16 pages of mutual employer and employee accountability in your agreement to a two page policy that contains no employer accountability and sits outside of the protection of your agreement.

Their proposal includes a reduction to the TVSP incentive payment and slashes the redeployment period. In summary, the government’s proposal is a lowest common denominator approach which has zero regard for retaining capability in the Public Sector, and which places no value or respect on the employer/employee relationship.

The PSA rejected the government’s proposal in its entirety. All the other unions present at the meeting supported the PSA’s position.

The PSA reinforced with government our membership bargaining position, as we have from the very first meeting and at every meeting since then, that the highest priority for PSA members is job security, along with maintaining all existing conditions of employment.

The next Enterprise Bargaining General Meeting has been proposed for 29 July 2020.

In the meantime, the PSA will continue to advocate for members and advise members of developments.

Our continued strong membership engagement is the key to protecting and building on what we have achieved through enterprise agreements.

You can help build a strong bargaining position by:

• Forwarding this Information Update to your co-workers to highlight the     government’s intentions and the importance of union membership        

• Asking your co-workers to join the PSA (they can join online here)   

• Encouraging your colleagues to attend PSA meetings via video conference or at     your workplace or agency when appropriate.     

• Consider becoming a Worksite Representative and contacting your PSA     Organiser.     

Make sure all your colleagues know how important it is to be a union member, and what we can achieve together.