CPSU Federal Office

Fiji is a Country evocative of tropical weather, palm trees, waves lapping against the beach, friendly locals and rugby union.  A paradise in the middle of the pacific – unless you happen to be a union worker.  The Fiji Government has produced the Employee Relations (Amendment) Bill 2015 (“ERB”) and in June 2015 Mark Perica, our Senior Legal Officer, was asked by the ACTU to attend before a Parliamentary Committee in Suva which was taking submissions on the Bill.  By way of a short political history, there was a military coup in 2006 which installed Rear Admiral Bainimarama.  The R

Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced cuts to the federal government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme on Mothers’ Day.  New parents who are entitled to receive employer-funded primary carers leave payments will have their government-funded parental payments reduced or, in many cases, cut altogether.  Abbott’s poorly named ‘Fairer Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill’ will deny access to government-funded paid parental leave to 46% of Australian women.  Access to 26 weeks paid parental leave is advocated by the World Health Organisation as optimal for the health and well-being of mothers and babies

The largest ever leak of negotiating documents from the controversial Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) highlights the madness of secrecy and provides no comfort for users of public services.  Seventeen separate secret documents were released today including working papers and nine critical annexes on sensitive sectors such as financial services, postal services, maritime, domestic regulation, telecommunications, professional services, and labour migration.  The latest leaks highlight the cat and mouse game being played by the

The Executive Board of Public Services International (PSI) met on 27 and 28 May to assess progress over the past year and to decide on further priorities and activities.

The primary focus of CPSU's submission to the Federal Government's Inquiry into Workplace Relations being undertaken by the Productivity Commission is that bargaining against the Crown requires a unique arbitral solution to overcome stalemates for government employees.  The Public Service is a unique employer being legislator, regulator as well as employer.  Bargaining with the Crown requires

CPSU's submission to the Standing Committee on Health Inquiry into Hepatits C in Australia serves to explain the concerns and opposition to any proposal to introduce a needle and syringe exchange program into our prisons.  CPSU members in prisons occupy roles in a work environment unparallelled in respect to the risk of ocupational violence compared to any other across the country.  Our members accept this risk on a daily basis and do all they can to minimise it through effective case management and security strategies at a personal, operational and policy level.  They do so whilst juggling

Community Services caseworkers from across NSW walked off the job for an hour to highlight a staffing crisis that is preventing effective child protection in NSW.  The spontaneous action by PSA members follows the NSW Government’s outrageous claims in the Sunday Telegraph

Since 2011 the New South Wales Government has acted in contravention to a number of fundamental conventions of the Internal Labour Organisation with respect to the treatment of its own workers and their right to collectively bargain. 

Our Corrections industry across Australia is under intense pressure as competing demands are starting to impact on life behind the walls forcing ad hoc responses by our State Governments, CPSU Federal Secretary Karen Batt said today.  "Isolated policy responses so far have resulted in a record numbers of prisoners, irresponsible overcrowding, escalating prisoner on prisoner and prisoner on Officer assaults, prisoner classification downgrades to match bed availability, stop gap solutions to bed shortages, backlogs in our Courts, and expensive announcements for more prisons but with half a de