The success of the Australian Labor Party in last weekend’s national election has led the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) to publish a number of ‘solid commitments’ it said the Government promised in the lead-up to the day of voting.
“The Australian Labor Party has made solid commitments,” the CPSU said, “on genuine bargaining and real wage rises, tackling insecure work, better workplace relations in the federal public sector, as well as climate change and the cost-of-living crisis.”
It said the new Government had committed to:
* Supporting meaningful increases in minimum wages and lifting wages caps;
* Engaging in genuine bargaining with public sector workers for real wage rises;
* Abolishing arbitrary staffing cap and allowing Agencies to hire staff directly instead of through expensive labour hire arrangements’;
* Enshrining secure work as an objective of the Fair Work Act for all workers and making ‘same job, same pay’ law;
* Reducing wasteful spending on external consultants and labour hire firms;
* Conducting an audit of insecure employment across the APS and creating more secure employment where temporary forms of work are being used inappropriately. This will include converting labour hire, casual or contract roles into ongoing APS jobs;
* Reinvesting funding to rebuild capability in the Public Service – including 1,080 new secure frontline service delivery jobs at Services Australia, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the National Disability Insurance Agency; and
* Tackling climate change and achieving net zero APS emissions by 2030
“These commitments didn’t happen by accident,” the CPSU said.
“Thousands of members worked hard to build community and political support for our positive agenda. Together, we made this happen.”
The union said that now the election was over it would work with its members “to ensure the new Government’s commitments are delivered and implemented in a way that works for you”.
