Thousands of commonwealth public servants have taken 24-hour strike action during the past fortnight, as part of a long-running dispute with the federal government. Some of the largest departments – such as Human Services (Centrelink), the Taxation Office, Immigration and Border Protection, and Defence – were affected. A range of smaller workplaces also took part.
More than two years after enterprise agreements covering the bulk of the government workforce expired, more than 100,000 public servants are yet to accept new pay deals. The government is offering pay rises of 2 percent per year for three years, with no back dating. It is also demanding that key conditions and workplace rights be stripped out of agreements and placed instead into workplace policies that can be altered at management’s discretion and which are unenforceable by workers.
The latest strikes are a welcome return to industrial action after the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) diverted its energies into Labor’s failed federal election campaign. For months, union officials and volunteers campaigned against the Liberals in marginal seats, without the ALP having promised to deliver on our log of claims. Prioritising the election was a dead end, achieving nothing and sucking life out of the industrial campaign.
Over the past two years, tens of thousands of public servants have defied the government by repeatedly voting “no” to proposed deals that fail to keep pay rises in line with inflation and attack conditions. Yet the CPSU has been unable to build any industrial momentum to force the government into significant concessions. Crucially, strike action has been sporadic and short lived; individual stoppages of up to 24-hours have been followed by months of inaction. The union leadership describes this as “strategic” action. It is a strategy that has got us nowhere.
Time is on the government’s side because most public servants who haven’t agreed to a new deal have had no pay rise since mid-2013. One by one, workers at the majority of smaller agencies and departments have accepted substandard deals – not out of enthusiasm, but out of fatigue, demoralisation and a belief that nothing more could be won. Fairfax media has recently reported that the government is preparing a fresh round of ballots at those departments where workers are still holding out.
Even now that Turnbull has been re-elected, the union’s strategy appears still to be based on a belief that the key to victory is social media posts and letter writing campaigns. The most recent strikes were accompanied not by major rallies displaying the union’s strength, but by small gatherings outside the offices of Liberal MPs, designed as photo opportunities. The message at these events was that the government is “incompetent” and “doesn’t understand” what it’s doing to workers.
This is nonsense. Turnbull, employment minister Michaelia Cash and the rest know exactly what they are doing. And so far they are winning. If we are to rebuild the strength of our union we need to display the same sort of determination as they do.
With a workforce worn down by years of attacks, and little recent history of industrial militancy, this will not be an easy task. But the first step is to be clear on what needs to be done.

CPSU delegate

Public servants strike, government still on the attack

Around 800 public servants and supporters rallied over lunchtime in the centre of Canberra on 15 September, kicking off a half-day strike across multiple government departments. The rally and strike are part of a long running Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) campaign for new enterprise agreements to cover 160,000 Commonwealth public servants. Further industrial action will follow, including a series of rolling strikes by customs and immigration staff at major airports.
Many public servants have not had a pay rise in more than two years. The government wants to strip workers’ rights out of legally enforceable agreements, and freeze wages for three years unless existing conditions are traded away. More than a year after most agreements expired, fewer than 4 percent of public servants have signed up to new deals, with numerous proposed agreements defeated in staff ballots.
Recently, 83 percent of staff at the Department of Human Services, which has a workforce of nearly 35,000 and is a union stronghold, rejected an offer of pay rises of 1.5 percent a year in exchange for substantial reductions in conditions.
Unfortunately, support for the campaign has remained largely passive at the workplace level. Numbers at the Canberra rally were well down on the 2,000 that attended a mass meeting in July, the only previous occassion when strike action was co-ordinated across multiple departments.
This is partly due to the union devoting time and resources to a “vote Labor” campaign in marginal electorates, despite resources already being stretched by the decentralised bargaining processes. More fundamentally, the union has consistently failed to prepare the membership for widespread and sustained strike action.
Addressing the rally, CPSU secretary Nadine Flood spoke of the need for workers to take action “when directed” to do so by the union. But there was no indication of what such action would look like for workers in most departments, or when it might take place. Flood also signalled her willingness to reach a compromise with incoming prime minister Malcom Turnbull.
The longest and loudest cheers at the rally were reserved for a cleaner who works at Parliament House, and who is part of an industrial campaign against pay cuts. If cleaning staff, who work for minimum pay rates, can defy the government and take serious strike action, she asked, then why can’t public servants? This is the sort of fighting spirit we need to defend our pay and conditions.

Public servants strike against cuts to pay and conditions

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.

Canberra

Public service pay dispute fails to gain momentum

Tens of thousands of federal public servants are edging closer to industrial action over stalled negotiations for new enterprise agreements. Planning for action is under way at a number of departments, including the Department of Human Services (DHS), which runs vital services including Medicare and Centrelink.
Existing agreements for the bulk of Commonwealth employees expired at the end of June. Despite the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) having finalised its log of claims last December, no progress has been made on new agreements for the sector’s 160,000 workers.
So far, the DHS is the only agency in which management has put a proposal on the table: 0.76 percent annual pay rises along with significant cuts to conditions. Management was forced to backtrack after workers reacted with outrage and derision.
At the end of September, the CPSU Governing Council voted to endorse “the use of protected industrial action” in support of the union’s demand for a 4 percent annual pay increase for three years, roughly in line with inflation, without cuts to conditions or job losses.
The government has flatly rejected the union’s modest demands, insisting that any increase in pay be offset dollar for dollar by cuts to conditions. Although bargaining formally takes place at the department or agency level, every agreement must be signed off by employment minister and industrial relations hardliner Eric Abetz. Farcically, he refuses even to meet with the union.
The government also wants to strip conditions from legally enforceable enterprise agreements, to be replaced with references to departmental policies that can be altered at management’s whim. Recently, the government refused to allow the Australian Crime Commission to offer its staff a 0 percent pay increase while maintaining existing conditions in the enterprise agreement. The union has rejected attempts at the so-called “streamlining” of agreements and labelled the plan a thinly veiled attack on workers’ rights.
The CPSU itself is likewise being targeted by the government. There are proposals to remove delegate rights from enterprise agreements, along with requirements that the union be consulted about changes in the workplace. Some departments have denied union representatives reasonable facilities for current negotiations, including refusing adequate paid release from the workplace for bargaining representatives. Even the longstanding practice of delegates going desk to desk during work hours to distribute union material and consult with their colleagues has been challenged by management in a number of departments.
Given the government’s predictably unyielding stance, militants within the CPSU have been arguing for months that our side needs to take a tougher approach and mobilise rank and file members in their own defence. The Governing Council decision to endorse industrial action is a step in the right direction, but to maintain existing pay and conditions, meaningful, sustained industrial action will be required across the public service.

Public servants strike, government still on the attack

Public servants strike against cuts to pay and conditions

Public service pay dispute fails to gain momentum

Public sector union pushes back – strikes likely

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