The audited financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2020 include a review of principal activities during the last financial year.

CAMPAIGNS - CPSU(SPSF) has many members employed as school services officers and child protection workers.  As part of an ongoing campaign to recognise the work of these two important professional groups the CPSU runs a national competition for each group: The Child Protection Delegate Awards, and the School Support Staff Awards. As a result of COVID the structure of these awards, the nomination processes and the method of advertisement had to be changed to an online process.   Despite the changes, a number of nominations have been received up until the end of the reporting period. CPSU is represented on the global governing board of the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability (CICTAR). CPSU supported the report released by CICTAR in December 2019 exposing the tax practices of outsourced labour hire corporations in the Australian Taxation Office, including companies such as Serco that hold contracts with state governments.

BRANCHES - A large part of the work of the Federal Office has been assisting Branches with a myriad of obligations, case work and advice ranging from liaising with the FWC on Right of Entry permit obligations.

COVID, OUR BRANCHES AND MEMBERS - As front line workers in the fight against the global pandemic State public sector workers have required assistance on a range of matters including: issues arising from Working From Home, provision of Personal Protective Equipment, implementation of safety protocols in prisons and over work for persons involved in testing and contact tracing.

In the first six months of 2020 this has been a significant part of our work. The Federal Office has acted as a facilitator in informing States of developing best practices, sharing information and protocols between the various State branches

GOVERNANCE - The Federal Office has a significant role in the Governance of our organisation, assisting Branches with their governance responsibilities under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2007 as well as meeting the statutory obligations of Federal Officers

ACTU - CPSU(SPSF) has participated in a range of ACTU committees, from Executive to Growth and Campaigns, the Industrial Legislation Committee, the Trade Group, the International Committee, Women’s Committee and the Youth Committee. The Federal Secretary of the CPSU(SPSF) is a Vice President of the ACTU and participates in a number of meetings with the other ACTU Vice Presidents.

From March to June 2020, during the first phase of the pandemic in Australia, the Federal Secretary, other Executive members, and Federal Office staff were involved in daily ACTU executive and Committee Meetings dealing with the various amendments to the Fair Work Act, the implementation of Job Keeper and Job Seeker, to consider award variation applications in the Fair Work Commission and to manage the OHS consequences of the virus.

PORTER REVIEW - The Federal Attorney General/Industrial Relations Minister issued a series of discussion papers on issues like Wage Theft, Enterprise Bargaining, amongst others. The Minister has called for submissions to which we contributed Post COVID the Minister established working groups to attempt consensus on a range of matters. The Federal Office has been engaged in that process

Right of members to resign

Rule 8 of Chapter C of Federal Rule sets out the terms under which a member of the Branch may resign. A member may resign from membership of the Union by notice in writing, addressed to the Branch Secretary, if the member cease to be eligible to become a member of the Union or the member give notice not less than two weeks before the resignation is to take effect.

Union Details

Number of employees
The number of equivalent full time employees at 30 June 2020 was 5 (2019: 5)

Number of members
The number of financial members across 6 branches at 30 June 2020 was 80,601 (2019: 75,851).