After 18 months of the CPSU raising its concerns with DJCS, the union has filed to launch proceedings against the state department in the Federal Court. Photo: Victorian Government.
The Victorian branch of the Community and Public Sector Union has served the State Government with a letter citing “multiple contraventions” of its agreements with staff from the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS).
Supported by major law firm Maurice Blackburn, the union alleges that about $4 million is owed to employees by the department alone – not including potential underpayments from the past two financial years.
“CPSU considers that the department has engaged in multiple contraventions of the Victorian Public Service (VPS) Enterprise Agreement 2016 and 2020,” read the letter addressed to DJCS Secretary Kate Houghton.
“The contraventions have resulted in multiple underpayments by the department over many years. Up to 1500 employees across this dept alone who have been short-changed for a few thousand dollars each over the last six years.”
Due to the “significant” number and scale of contraventions listed, the CPSU wrote of its intention to begin proceedings against DJCS in the Federal Court.
“In those proceedings, the CPSU will be seeking orders requiring the department to pay compensation and interest to [current and former] class members and penalties to the CPSU.”
Since March 2023, the CPSU has been in dispute with DJCS over this alleged non-payment to senior non-executive staff employed as Grade 5-7 employees.
This includes public servants in the courts, Corrections (Community and Custodial), Youth Justice, solicitors and sheriffs. However, some employees of the Victorian Ombudsman and Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission are also believed to have been affected.
Branch secretary Karen Batt said that “like other departments [DJCS] have applied language selectively (to avoid our VPS Agreement requirements) like ‘demonstrate measures of excellence’ to ‘exceed expectations’ to deny progression payments to Grade 5-7’s staff – ostensibly as a budget control feature”.
The CPSU alleges that data provided by DJCS confirms what it believes to be “methodical wage theft”.
“Not surprisingly, the highest-paid non-executive Grade 7s (86%) seem to achieve the imposed standard in higher numbers than those in the lower-paid Grade 5 (67%),” a spokesperson said.
Recently, the CPSU branch resolved a similar dispute with the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (DJSIR).
The union argued that key performance measures may be more onerous for public servants on bands five to seven, however, staff should only have to meet, not exceed, their goals to earn a pay rise.
In relation to their most recent action, branch secretary Batt noted “the irony of justice not complying with the law, industrial law in this case, is not lost on many of us in the labour movement and even those inside government”.
“We seek your response within 14 days,” the letter read. “In the absence of a satisfactory response, the CPSU will commence a representative proceeding in the Federal Court of Australia without further notice to the department.”
