Subsite 2

Premier backs down on sackings

The Victorian Premier Steve Bracks faced a barrage of criticism from us when he tried to slash jobs in the Victorian parliament. Below is the letter where the Victoiran parliament finally agrees to involve the union in all discussions involving staff reductions at Parliament.

Thursday, 27 June 2002

Ms Karen Batt, Branch Secretary
Community and Public Sector Union
Box 99, Victorian Trades Hall
54 Victoria Street
CARLTON SOUTH VIC 3053

Dear Ms Batt

Re: Electorate Office Party Pool

I write to advise you of changed arrangements to the Electorate Office Party Pool. I regret that this advice comes after the changes were published in the media, however this was unforeseeable given that the Parliament only received written notification of Government's decision late yesterday.

As part of the 2002-03 Budget deliberations, Government determined to reduce the current Electorate Office Party Pool by 11 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) positions. The allocation of the pool is to be on the basis of the number of seats held by each Party across Parliament rather than on the basis of the number of seats held in the Legislative Council.

Under the current Electorate Office Party Pool arrangements, the Liberal Party has 12 FTE positions, the Labor Party has 7 FTE positions and the National Party has 3 FTE positions. The reallocation will provide for 5.03 FTE positions for the Liberal Party, 4.95 FTE positions for the Labor Party and 1.02 FTE positions for the National Party. The Party Leaders will maintain the flexibility to determine the function and physical location of their quota of positions.

All employees effected by these changes will receive written notification as soon as possible and no later than the end of this week. As discussed with Debbie Hill this morning, the process of advising and consulting with all effected staff means these changes are unlikely to occur by 1st July 2002. We are currently developing a process to manage this Government policy decision. Once Parliament has a proposed process we will forward it to the CPSU for comment and discussion.

Please contact me on (03) 9651 8922 if you would like to discuss this matter further or e-mail steven.aird@parliament.vic.gov.au.

Yours sincerely

Steven Aird
Director Corporate Services

© 2001 Community & Public Sector Union - State Public Services Federation (CPSU-SPSF) - National Office

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005