Next round of O’Farrell attacks on workers announced.

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Administrator

“Premier Barry O’Farrell announced the changes in State Parliament yesterday, including an 11-fold increase to the fine for unions holding illegal strikes.”

“The Government will also have more power to sack public servants who do not have permanent jobs, and workers will be given more choice over which union they join.”
Read the ABC News report, 24 February 2012 “Furious response to NSW IR changes“.

Read the Sydney Morning Herald report, 24 February 2012 “O’Farrell aims to make unions pay for wildcat strikes“.

Read the Nine MSN report, 23 February 2012 “Govt to attack public services: unions“.

Posted in Jobs Watch, Law reform, PSA, Public Sector, Unions NSW | Leave a comment

Union action needed on audit report

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Administrator

“After spending most of last year attacking the workplace rights of nurses, police, firefighters and other public sector workers, the government is now considering removing staff ratios, degrading our public services and stamping out the rights of public sector workers,” Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon said in a statement on Thursday”

Read the Sydney Morning Herald report, 23 February 2012 “Public sector in dock after review reveals systemic problems“.

Read the full Audit report, “NSW Commission of Audit Interim Report: Public Sector Management”.

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Save Cronulla Fisheries – update 10/2/12

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Administrator

[Slightly edited from a Save Cronulla Fisheries bulletin]
“This media coverage has come about from an event we are staging today. A bus load of staff and family from Cronulla Fisheries are heading out to the Minister’s electoral office in Yass on our Where’s Katrina tour. We have taken this extreme step to highlight the fact that Minister Katrina Hodgkinson has never visited the Cronulla Fisheries site and is still making false statements about the site having constrained expansion, modernisation and limited access. The only access limited to the staff at Cronulla is to the Minister’s office. We have written submissions to her, gone through the chain of command, send numerous individual and collective requests to meet with her and we still have yet to receive even the courtesy of a reply. We are therefore going to Yass to try and meet with her and explain to her how misinformed she is about the site.

This event will be associated with some coverage in the papers and on the radio so if you hear anything on the radio stations that morning (ABC Local, 2SM John Laws, 2UE) feel free to call in and give your opinion. The more calls these radio stations are the more likely they will give the issue more airplay. For more information see the article in the Leader:

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/cronulla-fisheries-staff-last-ditch-attempt-to-meet-minister/2449889.aspx?src=rss

In other news, last week the Sutherland Shire Council Daily Telegraph last week detailing some of the outrageous costs associated with the closure of Cronulla Fisheries:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/million-to-build-office-for-two-fisheries-staff-in-port-stephens/story-e6freuzi-1226258773030

The mayor Carol Provan followed up this article with appearances on a number of radio shows including Adam Spencer and Linda Mottram on ABC 702, 2UE and John Laws on 2SM. She did a fantastic job of showing up the government for their lack of analysis before this decision and their misinformation about Cronulla supposedly having ‘limited access’ – which is simply not true. See our website for a copy of the John Laws interview http://www.savecronullafisheries.net/media.html

Please feel free to write comments also on this article and the follow up articles in the Marinie Business and FishingWorld magazines and the Leader:

Mayor speaks out over Cronulla Fisheries saga

http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/cronulla-fisheries-saga-continues

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/fisheries-staff-plans-disputed/2441626.aspx

These websites gauge the value of a story based on the number of comments so the more we comment the more they will continue to print and chase up our story. Feel free to send on to family and friends that are also behind our cause.

Thanks,
Save Cronulla Fisheries Team”

UPDATE: 20 February, Sydney Morning Herald report”
“Department told to get fisheries plan under radar”
“Documents obtained by the Herald under freedom of information laws showed it was made without a business case, without costings and without a cabinet submission. The briefing note shows the department still had no clear idea of the cost of the move in November, two months after the announcement.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/department-told-to-get-fisheries-plan-under-radar-20120219-1th79.html#ixzz1myFtiOZG

Posted in Jobs Watch, PSA, Progressive PSA, Public Sector | Tagged | Leave a comment

O’Farrell law reform: One step forward, two steps back?

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Administrator

“Under the ‘one on, two off’ policy, each calendar year the Government will aim to ensure that:

*the number of principal legislative instruments (i.e. principal Acts and principal Regulations) repealed is at least twice the number of new principal legislative instruments introduced (a ‘numeric test’); and

*the regulatory burden imposed by new principal legislative instruments within each portfolio is less than the regulatory burden removed by the repeal of principal legislative instruments from the same portfolio (a ‘regulatory burden constraint’).”

Deregulation gone mad? Which laws are to go? Intense lobbying is expected to follow from many quaters especially the business sector.
Read the Dept of Premier and Cabinet Memo, 2012/02 ‘One on, two off’ policy.

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Managing union conflicts of interest: O’Farrell ‘steps in’

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Administrator

The O’Farrell government has announced that union positions on government controlled Boards of Management are to be abolished. Members of the current PSA leadership group are set to lose $10,000s of extra income from Board positions that they hold. O’Farrell isn’t doing this with any concern for encouraging ethical behaviour on the part of union officials. He is more than happy for the officials to be tarred with the brush of being more concerned with their own advancement than with pursuing the interests of union members.

Progressive PSA supporters have long argued that PSA officials must at least declare and manage such potential conflicts of interest in accordance with the NSW Industrial Relations Act.

Officials should act against the common perception that by holding such positions they are serving two masters – union members and the government of the day.
Read more: www.progressivepsa.org

Posted in John Cahill, PPSA, conflicts of interest, ethics | Leave a comment

Delegates campaign meeting 29 Nov. Followup? not much

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Administrator

29 November saw a meeting of about 40 PSA delegates at PSA House in Sydney. Ideas for action were discussed. There was no report to the December Central Council that observers could discern. Undertakings to share contact details between those delegates have not yet been realised. Delegates are asking is the Executive serious or just creating another smokescreen of seeming action from which little or nothing eventuates.

Posted in PPSA, PSA, Progressive PSA, Uncategorized, salaries | Tagged | Leave a comment

O’Farrell ‘warning’ on public sector salaries

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Administrator

“Barry O’Farrell has declared his intention to see out a ”long innings” in charge of NSW, while key Liberal Party powerbrokers are now certain he will become a ”three-term premier”.
“He listed other priorities as bedding down public sector wage reforms, and the devolution of more responsibilities to school principals.” In the year ahead these Coalition priorities can serve as warnings for PSA members generally and those working in schools in particular.
Read the Sun Herald report, 27 November, “Barry bats for a long innings“.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Does fully contestable Victorian TAFE show NSW a possible commercial future?

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Administrator
As reported in earlier articles the industrial reality of the VET sector across Australia is becoming more complex. Potentially workers wages and conditions are at risk.
Victoria’s Holmesglen TAFE faces a multitude of issues including contestable funding. We reported earlier that Holmesglen TAFE became embroiled in a scheme to buy a private provider, Carrick. Carrick is now owned not by Holmsglen but by a large US education company, Kaplan. As reported in the The Australian 16/11/2011:
“Victoria’s Auditor-General has exposed bureaucratic dysfunction and almost comedic errors in the handling of Holmesglen TAFE’s abortive attempt this year to buy collapsing private provider Carrick that culminated in the “waste” of $3 million in public money.”Read “Holmesglen TAFE’s ‘dysfunction’ exposed by Victorian Auditor-General’s report” “Holmesglen TAFE’s ‘dysfunction’ exposed by Victorian Auditor-General’s report”
Or read here:

 

Posted in TAFE, TAFE budget, contestability, education | Leave a comment

PSA leadership calls cross agency wages campaign meeting

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Administrator

Only now, six months after the O’Farrell Government outlined its attacks on the public service have top PSA officials begun to turn to the membership following their unsuccessful legal challenge. The PSA leadership has a poor track record on mobilising members for industrial action. Even before Tuesday’s mass meeting has begun they have already ruled out strike action.
Make sure your workplace is represented at the 29 November PSA delegates meeting at PSA House in Sydney. Discuss ideas for action with your colleagues and ask your delegate to put them up for implementation.

Unfortunately most of the 10am – 3pm meeting has been reserved for speeches from the current leadership. Union activists should try and make the most of the one hour put aside for workshopping ideas for action.

Posted in PSA, salaries | Leave a comment

Is John Cahill, still a paid Director of Macquarie Generation?

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Administrator

John Cahill is (or was between 3 May 1996  until at least 14 November 2011) a paid Director of Macquarie Generation. Macquarie generation employs members of the PSA. Mr Cahill is on the Macquarie Generation Board Remuneration and Human Resources Committee. Many PSA members question whether this a conflict of interest. Some of John Cahill’s other personal financial interests are listed below.

“John Cahill
Non-executive Director

Mr Cahill was appointed Director of Macquarie Generation on 3 May 1996 and is a member of the Board Remuneration and Human Resources Committee. Mr Cahill was reappointed as a Director for a two year period commencing 15 November 2009 and ending on 14 November 2011. Mr Cahill is the General Secretary of the Public Service Association of New South Wales, State Secretary and National Senior Vice President of the Community and Public Sector Union, a Director of the Bowlers Club of New South Wales, a Director of the State Government Employees Credit Union, a Director of the Newtown Jets Rugby League Football Club and Trustee and Executive Member of Unions New South Wales. Mr Cahill has thirty years industrial relations experience in the electricity generation industry. Mr Cahill has no other former directorships in the last three years.”

Accessed from Macquarie Generation web site 24 November 2011: http://www.macgen.com.au/Governance/Board-of-Directors.aspx

NB We note that as of the 28 November 2011 John Cahill’s entry has been removed from the Macquarie Generation web site.

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