Public service pay dispute fails to gain momentum
The pay dispute between commonwealth public servants and the Abbott government has reached an impasse. Despite enterprise agreements across the service expiring in June 2014, not a single new agreement has been reached.
The government wants to freeze the wages of around 160,000 workers, with any pay rises to be offset by cuts to conditions. Workers at the Tax Office, for example, were recently offered a pay increase of 0.8 percent per year, or around $7 a week for mid-level staff. In return the bosses demanded 200 job losses, a 2 percent increase in working hours, and a host of other cuts to conditions and workplace rights.
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) rejects these demands, arguing for 4 percent annual pay increases without trade-offs.
Department bosses are either putting forward packages that slash real pay and conditions, and stand no chance of being approved by workers, or they are stalling for time and refusing to put any offer on the table.
The union has so far been unable to break the deadlock. Proposed agreements that have been put to staff ballots have been resoundingly rejected, by margins of up to 95 percent. Ballots to authorise industrial action have been taken at several departments, and more are to follow soon.
But the only “action” to date has been token, such as adding tag lines to emails stating, “I am taking industrial action”, or having staff coordinate their lunch breaks.
Public sector workers can’t stop the flow of profits to the ruling class like workers in private industry. Our power lies in our ability to create a political crisis for the government through ongoing and serious industrial and protest action. A lunchtime rally in Canberra in November last year which drew hundreds of people was a good first step, but has not been built on.
The national rallies of unionists on 4 March presented a perfect opportunity to link our campaign with widespread working class hatred for Abbott. Yet the CPSU failed to build seriously for the protests. In particular, why were workers from the giant Department of Human Services, where the CPSU has 15,000 members able to take legally protected industrial action, not called out on strike? Such a move would have boosted our own campaign and the union movement more generally.
The present stalemate suits Abbott perfectly. Many public servants have now gone without a pay rise for 18 months or longer. Every delay in securing new enterprise agreements means a further erosion of the value of wages due to inflation.
As the dispute drags on, workers can become resigned to accepting defeat, particularly if they don’t believe the union can secure victory. The union leadership itself acknowledges that there is a danger that demoralised workers will eventually vote to accept substandard agreements.
A major escalation of the campaign will be necessary if we are to avoid defeat by stagnation.
