NSW Public Sector media @fbeu :Utterly shameful laws are anti-family, anti-community - by firefighter Gary Cork

From: http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/blogs/soapbox-australia-day-in-tamworth/utterly-shameful-laws-are-antifamily-anticommunity/2231575.aspx?storypage=0

Utterly shameful laws are anti-family, anti-community

Gary Cork of Tamworth writes about the impossible choice public sector workers face under new state industrial relations laws.

I WOULD like to thank all local media outlets for their coverage of the rally on Friday when Tamworth’s public servants took to the streets to protest against recent changes made by the O’Farrell government to state industrial relations laws.

With the passing of these new laws NSW public servants, including all frontline workers, have been stripped of their right to fair and independent determination of workplace industrial issues concerning pay and working conditions.

NSW public servants now infamously become the only workers in Australia to be denied this right.

The capping of public service wages at 2.5 per cent per annum is the small print of this issue for these workers, despite the fact that this does equate to real wage erosion as inflation sails well above this level.

Local MP Kevin Anderson’s reply in Saturday’s NDL that “if they want higher wages we need to find productivity savings” is a generic party line and smoke screen for the grubbiness that lies behind the changing of these laws.

Firstly, there is no productivity to improve. Public servants do not produce, manufacture or sell anything. In most instances our public service reflects a group of dedicated professionals who have made clear career choices based around helping the members of their communities. That may be teaching our children, nursing us when we are ill, protecting us from criminals, protecting at-risk children, responding to and dealing with emergencies, working to make our communities safer ... the list goes on.

Secondly, were these public services able to improve their “productivity”, the new laws now outrightly ban increased productivity as a case for wage review.

These new laws clearly and singularly state that the only means for public sector workers to be awarded wage rises above the capped rate is to reduce employee costs.

This can now only happen by two mechanisms: either sell off their working conditions or reduce the size of their workforce (give up jobs).

Public sector workers are now dealt an impossible choice. They can give up nothing and in return watch their wages erode in real terms year after year, or they can sell off their conditions and watch the impact that will inevitably have on the quality of their family life, or they can give up jobs and watch their communities suffer from further under-resourced, under-staffed services.

Instead of having to make these impossible choices in the near future, many of our state’s public sector workers have instead decided to stand up and fight against these anti-worker, anti-family, anti-community and utterly shameful laws.

As for Mr Anderson’s quote, “we are borrowing money to pay the public sector wages bill”, I can only say nice bookwork, Barry.

- Gary Cork - FBEU member

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Well said Gary, champion bloke, solid Unionist. Shame Barry, Shame.

DARIN SULLIVAN

PRESIDENT

FBEU

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