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Union calls for
PS job security
The Public Service Association (PSA) has warned that growing numbers of temporary and casual workers employed in the NSW Public Service was leading to insecurity in the workforce and the erosion of worker’s rights.
In its submission to an independent inquiry into insecure work in Australia commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the PSA said that of the 322,542 fulltime equivalent staffing positions in the NSWPS in 2010, 39,202 were temporary and 20,629 casual.
“The Association is concerned with the increasing engagement of temporary and casual employment in the NSW public sector,” the PSA submission said.
| PSA joins insecurity study |
“The data also shows that women predominate in insecure employment in the public sector with 71.15% of temporary employees and 70.25% of casual employees being women”
It called on the Government to limit the use of temporary employees to 12 months before appointing them as ongoing Public Servants and confine the use of casual employees to irregular and intermittent work.
The PSA submission joined other public sector contributions including one from the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) that argued that a more permanent PS workforce was essential if the public sector was to best serve the Australian community.
“An insecure Public Service could not perform its role adequately,” the CPSU submission said.
It also said the prevalence of fixed-term contracts at higher levels had resulted in the politicisation of the PS with staff who were insecure in their employment potentially compromised or limited in their ability to give frank fearless advice.
“The loss of knowledge and skills from the sector when contracts expire also has a detrimental impact on the quality of the Public Service as a whole,” the CPSU submission said.
It said high numbers of workers on fixed-term contracts pointed to the widespread misuse of contract employment and the lack of financial security experienced by the workers concerned hampered their ability to plan for the future and win approval for bank loans.
“This was particularly difficult when a worker was the sole income earner.”
The PSA submission to the inquiry can be accessed at this PS News link.
Edition 255, 25 January 2012
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