Cloudy with no chance of a pay rise: BoM staff leave secret messages of support in forecasts

BoM staff have been embedding secret messages into reports as the nation’s forecasters fight for their first raise in five years.

BoM staff have been leaving message of support in forecasts. Picture: Supplied

Staff at the Bureau of Meteorology have been embedding secret strike messages into weather reports as the nation’s forecasters fight for their first pay rise in five years.

Hashtags such as #BoMonStrike and #5yearpayfreeze have been inserted into daily forecasts for Sydney, Canberra and Perth by a rogue employee.

Pro-industrial action messages have also been sent out on the BoM’s official social media accounts.

“Cloudy. Medium (50 per cent) chance of rain, most likely at night. #BoMonStrike #SupportUs Winds north to northwesterly 15 to 25 km/h becoming light in the late afternoon,” a forecast for Sydney on the BoM website read today.

Today's forecast: Cloudy with a chance of industrial action. #BoMonStrike pic.twitter.com/pdFhTPG50x

— Campbell McConachie (@Campbell_McC) June 8, 2018

While in Canberra: “Cloudy. Very high (90 per cent) chance of rain, most likely from the late morning. #BoMonStrike #5yearpayfreeze Winds northwesterly.”

BoM’s Twitter accounts for both Victoria and Western Australia added #BOMonSTRIKE hashtags to the end of tweets about forecasts. One article on its website spells out the phrase “BOM ON STRIKE” through the first letter of each sentence.

good to see the #BOMonStrike message getting out pic.twitter.com/ocqobzIIt9

— Anecdotal Cupcake (@EmpiricalMuffin) June 7, 2018

Forecasters are currently in the midst of negotiations over new pay conditions after their last enterprise agreement expired in 2014.

The Community and Public Sector Union has said the BoM has only offered pay rises in conjunction with changes to working conditions.

“The public deserve to know why the hardworking employees of the Bureau — the people who bring them vital weather information every day — have been forced to endure a wage freeze for nearly five years, simply because they refuse to sacrifice working conditions,” CPSU Deputy Secretary Beth Vincent-Pietsch said.

“Rather than sit down and talk about how this increasingly bitter dispute can be resolved, management have instead gone to the extraordinary lengths of attempting to gag employees from taking part in lawful industrial action”

It is not yet known what has happened to the employee who tampered with the online forecasts. A BOM spokesperson said the weather bureau respected the right of its workers to protest.

“The Bureau of Meteorology has put to its staff a new Enterprise Agreement for consideration, ahead of a formal vote commencing on June 22,” he said.

“The proposed agreement provides a substantially front-loaded pay increase, protects core conditions, is financially sustainable and complies with the Government’s Workplace Bargaining Policy.”