6 November 2012

Gloss taken off the 100th anniversary of the public service
The Public Service Association says the 100th anniversary of the public service comes at a difficult and challenging time.

The Public Service Act, which effectively established the modern day public service, was passed on November 7th 1912.

“The Act represents a significant point in history and changed the whole face of the public service and led to the formation of the Public Service Association the following year,” says PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott.

It took another 76 years for the next big shakeup in the form of the State Sector Act which saw the public service restructured and corporatised, many government departments sold off, department heads replaced with CEOs on fixed-term contracts and thousands of public servants made redundant.

Brenda Pilott says “those reforms still shape the public service today and what we’ve seen in the past few years is 3000 public sector jobs cut, capacity lost and reduced services to the public as a result.”

There are still tough times ahead for public servants with a further $1 billion being cut from departmental budgets this year and legislation before parliament which sends very worrying signals about the way the government intends to manage the public service.

Brenda Pilott says proposed changes to the State Sector Act and the Employment Relations Act will adversely affect public servants’ ability to negotiate collective agreements, and undermine their pay and conditions and rights to redundancy.

The PSA is strenuously opposed to amended legislation and is launching a campaign “More Reforms Fewer Rights” to push for changes.

ENDS

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