Unions Tasmania has concerns about public service freeze and hiring in some areas
The state budget will be handed down on May 29 and unions are fearful a job freeze will see job cuts. The government accuses them of scaremongering.
Tasmania
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Ahead of the upcoming state budget, the union movement and government have clashed over a hiring freeze and possible job cuts.
Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday said unions were hearing from members about a range of jobs that were not being advertised or filled across the public sector in areas including pharmacy, social work, school administration, speech pathology and biosecurity.
“These vital jobs that are not being advertised are attributable to the job freeze which in reality is a job cut,” she said.
“Meanwhile, the government sees no problem in advertising highly paid executive roles, for example, a Deputy Secretary role in the Department of Treasury and Finance at the beginning of April.
“There are two key issues here. One is the hypocrisy – there is always a reason for highly paid executive roles, even when the government are slashing 2500 public sector jobs.
“The second issue is most alarming – these are key service delivery roles that assist the community.”
A government spokesman said: “Ongoing Union claims about cuts are false and nothing but a scare campaign.”
“Tasmanians expect a public service that operates as effectively and efficiently as possible, and roles that are essential to the ongoing operations of public services continue to be recruited to and filled.
“This includes our bolstered efforts to employ more doctors, nurses, paramedics, teachers, and police.”
In March, the government announced a hiring freeze on non-essential roles had begun in the State Service, with Treasurer Guy Barnett unable to rule out public sector job cuts ahead of
the budget.
Mr Barnett said the public service headcount had grown by about 18 per cent over the past five years, including the Covid pandemic, while the state’s population had only grown about 5 per cent over the same period.
“We need a right-sized public service at the right shape to deliver for Tasmania what’s best for Tasmania. We need to be more productive, more efficient,” he said.
Ms Munday said fears were also held about plans to privatise government business enterprises.
“While the government may be doing everything they can to make it difficult for workers or the public to track which roles are no longer advertised due to the jobs freeze, we hear from members that these are jobs that, in normal times, would be advertised without delay,” she said.
“This is the impact of Jeremy Rockliff’s public sector cuts and privatisation agenda.”
Originally published as Unions Tasmania has concerns about public service freeze and hiring in some areas
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