A senate inquiry will attempt to uncover the impact of the epic battle between the federal government and the major public sector union over pay and conditions, which has been dragging on for three years.
The Education and Employment References Committee will explore the impact of the extended dispute, which leaves around 100,000 Commonwealth public servants without an enterprise bargaining agreement – about two-thirds of the APS workforce – and includes departmental giant Human Services.
It will focus on areas such as service provision, staff morale and family life.
The terms of reference will try to quantify the impact of the workplace bargaining stand-off on:
- service provision, particularly in regional Australia and on vulnerable and elderly people
- Australia’s tourism industry and international reputation from international port and airport strikes
- agency productivity and staff morale
- workplace relations in the Commonwealth public sector
- working conditions and industrial rights of Commonwealth public sector employees
- employee access to workplace flexibility, particularly for employees with family or caring responsibilities
- employees’ working conditions and industrial rights, including access to enforceable domestic and family violence leave
The inquiry will also examine the effect of “an expanded role” for the responsible Minister in the government’s workplace bargaining policy.
It is a tight turnaround. Submissions close on October 27 and the committee will report by November 30. There will be public inquiries in between the two dates.
Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Brendan O’Connor welcomed the inquiry and called it ‘an important avenue to bring the concerns of APS employees to the public’s attention.’
“You can tell a lot about a government by how it treats its workers – Malcolm Turnbull must be judged by what he does for workers, and how he treats his own workforce, not what he says,” Mr O’Connor said. “This government is so incompetent that it is the first government in 30 years that has been unable to settle public sector bargaining.
“Labor believes in an approach to enterprise bargaining that actually improves the capability of staff and provides fairness in the workplace, work-life balance and secure, meaningful jobs. An approach that does not force agencies to strip rights and conditions.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection is locked in negotiations with the Community and Public Sector Union in an attempt to reach an agreement on pay and conditions before the Fair Work Commission steps in and decides the verdict for them under compulsory arbitration.
The post Senate inquiry into impact of public sector pay wars appeared first on Government News.
source Government News http://ift.tt/2dO79AX
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق