Abbott pushes for public sector pay freeze

Commonwealth public servants are facing the most serious threat to pay, conditions and job security in nearly 20 years, as enterprise agreements covering around 160,000 workers are due to expire on 30 June.

Tony Abbott’s recently released wish list for bargaining is headed by a blanket wage freeze, which will cut real pay after the impact of inflation. Under the government’s framework, a maximum pay rise of 2.5 percent per year would be permitted only if traded off against existing conditions. Personal leave would be cut from the current norm of 18 or 20 days to 15 days. Redundancy provisions would be weakened and the rights of the union to organise in the workplace curtailed.

Despite the imposition of a central position on wages and conditions, bargaining will actually occur in individual departments and agencies. Bizarrely, this means that the union will not be negotiating with anyone holding real authority over wages and key conditions. Union resources will be stretched thin, and each section of the workforce will be isolated.

Workplaces with weaker union organisation will be soft targets for substandard agreements. Disparities in wage levels between departments, already over $10,000 at some levels, will likely widen.

Job security is also under attack, the Liberals having promised to abolish 12,000 public service positions. News that hundreds of jobs will be cut at one department or another has emerged with grim regularity since Abbott’s election. In the latest round, all Department of Communications staff will be forced to reapply for their own jobs, with only three-quarters of positions to be refilled.

Abbott claims cuts are necessary because the budget is in deficit. But there is plenty of money for locking up refugees on Manus Island and tax breaks for mining companies. The Liberals simply want ordinary workers to pay the price for difficulties they see looming for Australian capitalism.

And it isn’t only those public servants directly affected who stand to lose if they get their way. State governments and private businesses will be encouraged to follow suit, lowering the standard of living of workers across the economy.

To resist these attacks, we need to mobilise as many workers as possible in a sustained campaign of public protests and industrial action. Unfortunately, the Community and Public Sector Union leadership appears unwilling to lead such a fight. It has accepted without a murmur the government’s rejection of service-wide bargaining and refused to countenance industrial action to save jobs.

Rather than preparing the membership for action, CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood has issued a press release calling for the start of the “sober and serious business of constructive negotiations”. It will take a whole lot more than reasonable dialogue to beat back Abbott.