Ned K.
Public sector jobs, the last bastion of jobs for life under the remnants
of the capitalist ‘welfare state’, are under attack by federal and state
governments of both Labor and Liberal persuasion.
As reported in June 2013 edition of Vanguard,
the federal budget will result in the loss of 2,400 full time jobs in the
Department of Human Services.
The Queensland and NSW state Liberal Governments continue to eliminate
public sector jobs.
Even the South Australian Weatherill Labor Government announced in
its State Budget in June 2013 the loss of a further 5,000 public service jobs
by 2017. The sting in the tail of this announcement was that as from 1
July 2014, the cap of 116 weeks on a redundancy package would be slashed to a
maximum of 52 weeks.
The date of 1 July 2013 for the reduction in the cap to 52
weeks coincides with the end date of the SA Labor Government’s “no forced
redundancy policy” for public sector employees. The Government’s Health Department
is eager to take advantage of this situation by ploughing ahead with a proposal
to privatise all non-clinical jobs in the major hospitals.
Public sector union members are preparing for a big fight for job
security as a major issue leading up to the State election in SA in March 2014
and prior to the 1 July deadline next year, irrespective of which
party is in parliamentary office at the time.
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