Public sector unions say budget crisis raises job cut risk

Public sector unions say they are concerned the state government will use an emerging budget crisis as an excuse for job cuts.

Thirza White CPSU secretary. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Public sector unions say they are concerned the state government will use an emerging budget crisis as an excuse for wholesale job cuts.

But the government says it has no plans to “slash and burn”.

Treasury’s Revised estimates Report revealed a $500m blowout in the deficit, in an interview last week, Premier Jeremy Rockliff said he was keen to ensure the public service was “the right size”.

“What we need to do is ensure we have right size public service for our state, and this is where we do need to look at ensuring that we manage the public service sustainably, focus on that service delivery area, but ensure we do have the right size public service for what Tasmanians expect us to deliver,” he told the Fontcast.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet this week doubled its Workforce Renewal Incentive Program from $30,000 to $60,000 to encourage staff to quit.

Community and Public Sector Union state general secretary Thirza White said she was concerned by the clear signals the government was looking to trim public sector numbers — which would inevitably impact on service delivery.

“The public sector is already struggling with a high number of vacancies and difficulty in recruiting workers with experience,” she said.

“Incentivising existing experienced workers to leave will only exacerbate the current crisis and lead to further service failures that will impact us all.

“The mid-year budget update showed additional funding was required in our hospitals, in our prisons and for emergency personnel on workers’ compensation.

“This is a direct result of the government’s failure to invest in other areas of the public sector”.

Ms White said previous cuts to the public sector had demonstrated that the need for public services did not go away — and often became more acute.

“History tells us that if you experienced highly skilled public servants leave, they will end up being called back in, doing public sector work as consultants for profit-driven private companies,” she said.

“It will cost Tasmanians more in the long run. Maybe that’s what Premier Rockliff means when he says his government will always ‘back in business’.”

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian Branch on Wednesday accused the state government of putting a freeze on staff numbers in health.

ANMF secretary Emily Shepherd. Picture: Linda Higginson

“While the Department maintains that there are only just over 100 vacancies statewide, ANMF members have provided staffing spreadsheets that show almost 400 vacancies at the Royal Hobart Hospital alone,” ANMMF state secretary Emily Shepherd said.

“Despite this the department have now released a protocol which encourages management to consider not filling vacant positions if agency staff is required and if they are required to meet clinical needs then they can only be employed for a maximum of three months and no extensions are to be offered.”

The Department of Health said the claims by the ANMF were not true and hiring was continuing as normal.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff denied the government has plans to sack frontline workers in droves.

“I’m not about a slash and burn mentality,” he said.

“That’s what was tried by the Labor Green Government in 2011 where you talk about nurses, well, they put hospital beds in storage and closed wards and sacked nurses.

“What we are about is investing in the front line.

“I’m not going to sack nurses, sack police and sack teachers to have a fast track to surplus.

“We’ll do this in a very measured way, a way that does not impact on the economy.”

Originally published as Public sector unions say budget crisis raises job cut risk