Union slams ‘disastrous’ plan to axe 300 public servants

THE public service union has accused the Territory Government of copying its plan to slash 300 jobs from the federal Coalition

Community and Public Sector Union NT secretary Kay Densley has accused the Territory Government of copying the federal government over its “lazy and completely ineffective” plan to slash 300 jobs in 12 months Picture: Justin Kennedy

THE public service union has accused the Territory Government of copying its “lazy and completely ineffective” plan to slash 300 jobs in 12 months from the federal Coalition.

Treasurer Nicole Manison announced the cuts on Tuesday, saying the target could largely be achieved through attrition and voluntary redundancies and would save the Territory $30 million.

But Community and Public Sector Union NT secretary Kay Densley said the same tactic had played out “disastrously” for the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government in Commonwealth agencies.

“An arbitrary cap like this is going to have damaging and unintended consequences that will hurt ordinary workers and all Territorians who rely on public services,” she said.

“This hasn’t saved any money in Canberra at all, but driven privatisation and outsourcing and increases in the use of consultants, contractors and labour hire.”

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Ms Densley said sacking workers also meant cutting services and would likely mean another 300 families leaving the Territory.

The job cut will see public service numbers capped at the average staffing level for 2018 and while Ms Manison said it was not a “slash and burn approach” there would be more “tough decisions” to come.

“That will mean in some cases there are less programs that are being delivered, that some things might have to stop and often they do come with (the loss of) jobs,” she said.

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Ms Manison said front line service providers including police, teachers and nurses would be exempt from the cuts but department heads could roll if they could not “live within their means”.

“Their contracts come up for renewal themselves (and) we will be having the chief executives and their performances here monitored monthly,” she said.

Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Bicknell welcomed the announcement as part of a “holistic approach” to address the Territory’s fiscal woes.

“We certainly recognise that something needed to be done and this is a step in the right direction,” he said.

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“We’ve always said major slashing and burning public service numbers will have some negative impacts on the economy so it needs to be a measured approach so we certainly think that’s what’s been done here.”

Opposition Leader Gary Higgins also welcomed the move but questioned why the government had not acted sooner to pressure department chiefs on staffing levels.

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“Why haven’t they had those meetings up until now, how often are they meeting with their CEOs for two and a half years, how accountable have they kept them and how across their portfolios have they been?” he said.

“It’s a bit late to be saying they’re going to have monthly meetings now.”

Ms Manison said an earlier attempt to implement a hiring “freeze” had been unsuccessful but would not be drawn on why, saying only the new plan would be “a tough approach”.

“We are drawing a very firm line in the sand to say that is the number we expect,” she said.