The Public Sector Union is to campaign against the July 1 start-up of the separate ACT Government Service saying the Federal Government knocked back yesterday all of its outstanding claims on mobility between the services.
However, the Commonwealth says it is still willing to talk.
A stop-work meeting will be held at 12.15pm today in the Canberra Theatre. The union will also lobby Green and Democrat senators to delay or change the legislation in the Senate. It will also lobby ACT Independent and Opposition MLAs about the complementary ACT legislation.
At an Assembly committee hearing yesterday …….. (take in top few pars of Bachelard copy then back to this …. then end with rest of Bachelard.)
The Federal and ACT Governments want the new service to start on July 1. The Federal Government is up against a Senate practice that Bills should not be tabled and passed in the same sitting, and this Bill has not been tabled yet. It was introduced into the House earlier this month and is expected to pass in the sitting week beginning June 6 and then go to the Senate.
The ACT Bill was introduced last month, but the Assembly has only three sitting days to debate it before July 1, and one of them is Budget day.
The ACT branch secretary of the PSU, Cath Garvan, said yesterday that at a conference in the Industrial Relations Commission, the Industrial Relations Department and the Public Service Commission had not met the union’s outstanding claims: that outstanding recreation leave be carried over rather than paid out on transfer back to the Commonwealth; that ACT employees be able to transfer at level as between Commonwealth departments without appeals; that there be a breathing space for ACT employees to go back automatically; and some other issues.
The Public Service Commissioner, Denis Ives, (SUBS: one N is correct) said the Commonwealth had told the unions that it was happy to consult and invited them to meetings, but the unions were not prepared to do that.
“”Everyone is trying to meet the July 1 target, but there are only four or five outstanding issues and it is still only May 24 so there is still plenty of time to talk,” he said. “”The Commonwealth is happy to consult further and still meet the timetable.”
There are 22,000 ACT public servants in Canberra still technically under the Commonwealth wing. These will become employees of the separate ACT Government Service on July 1, if the legislation passes the Federal and ACT parliaments. The legislation broadly gives them continuity of service, but there have been arguments over detail.
(take in rest of Bachelard.
POINT TO WEEKEND… In The Canberra Times this weekend: The new ACT Government Service _ what it means for employees; what it means for Canberra.