Ministry committed to resolving industrial action

The Ministry of Justice is committed to resolving industrial action and achieving a fair settlement for its staff, General Manager District Courts Tony Fisher said today.

The PSA today announced its members would take industrial action after collective bargaining stalled.

“Our staff do a great job delivering services that support the work of the Ministry and the courts system, and we value them, Mr Fisher said.

“Like many organisations the Ministry faces tight financial constraints and cannot afford the current union demands, and is keen to move forward to resolve collective agreements that are affordable as quickly as possible. The union claim would cost the Ministry in excess of $100 million over three years – $25m annually from the first year increasing to $51m annually by the third year. The Ministry simply can’t afford that,” Mr Fisher said.

“As well, the union wants the Ministry to commit to a pay structure which would mean the Ministry would have no direct control over future wage costs. The Ministry has offered performance based pay increases for staff effective from 1 July 2010.Our preference is to reward performance, not time in the job.

“The Ministry is a lean organisation. It continuously looks for ways to improve service delivery and achieve productivity gains through greater efficiency and effectiveness. We’ve recently implemented changes to our organisational structure with that in mind.”

The Ministry wants to assure the public that we will be working hard to ensure that services are not affected during this industrial action.”

ENDS

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