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The public service union says the ACT government still needs to do much more to tackle insecure work in the territory’s public service. It’s been four years since the Community and Public Sector Union first raised concerns about the number of ACT government public servants in temporary and casual contracts. In a submission to the ACT government, the union said inroads had been made through the transfer of workers into permanent contracts but that “additional insecure work has since been created”. More than 20 per cent of ACT public servants were not on permanent contracts during the last financial year, with 16.5 per cent of workers on a temporary contract and 5.4 per cent of workers were casuals. However, the number of permanent workers in the ACT public service is at a 10-year high of 78.1 per cent. In the five preceding years, the number hovered at around 76 per cent. The submission noted a “slight improvement” on the portion of secure jobs last financial year but said much more needed to be done to transfer workers to permanent positions. CPSU regional secretary Maddy Northam said not enough conversions were being made and called for directorates to make it a priority. In particular, Ms Northam said priority should be given to the transfer of labour hire contracts. “You can have workers sitting next to each other, one on a labour hire contract and one who is a permanent public servant but their pays are wildly different and their conditions are very different as well,” she said. “There needs to be parity” The submission stated that one of the reasons this was being inhibited was certain positions were linked with funding grants in the territory budget. Ms Northam said this meant contracts would only be extended if it was tied to allocated funding. In 2018, the ACT government announced an insecure work taskforce to investigate how many employees could be moved to permanent roles. A recent ACT government estimates hearing heard the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate appointed nine staff through the taskforce in 2019-20. So far this financial year, eight staff have been employed. As well, through Access Canberra 69 labour hire roles had been transferred to permanent positions. READ MORE: The CPSU also called for a 30 extra full-time employees for WorkSafe ACT. Its submission said the safety watchdog needed to be properly resourced to enable strong regulatory oversight of occupational health and safety. It comes as the agency was made independent from the ACT government last year, following a damning review that found the organisation had a low degree of autonomy. WorkSafe ACT has also embarked on a three-year campaign to crack down on safety practices in Canberra’s construction industry. “Our members in WorkSafe have been crying out for more resources for years,” Ms Northam said. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
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The public service union says the ACT government still needs to do much more to tackle insecure work in the territory’s public service.
It’s been four years since the Community and Public Sector Union first raised concerns about the number of ACT government public servants in temporary and casual contracts.
In a submission to the ACT government, the union said inroads had been made through the transfer of workers into permanent contracts but that “additional insecure work has since been created”.
More than 20 per cent of ACT public servants were not on permanent contracts during the last financial year, with 16.5 per cent of workers on a temporary contract and 5.4 per cent of workers were casuals.
However, the number of permanent workers in the ACT public service is at a 10-year high of 78.1 per cent. In the five preceding years, the number hovered at around 76 per cent.
CPSU regional secretary Maddy Northam said not enough conversions were being made and called for directorates to make it a priority.
In particular, Ms Northam said priority should be given to the transfer of labour hire contracts.
“You can have workers sitting next to each other, one on a labour hire contract and one who is a permanent public servant but their pays are wildly different and their conditions are very different as well,” she said.
“There needs to be parity”
The submission stated that one of the reasons this was being inhibited was certain positions were linked with funding grants in the territory budget.
Ms Northam said this meant contracts would only be extended if it was tied to allocated funding.
A recent ACT government estimates hearing heard the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate appointed nine staff through the taskforce in 2019-20. So far this financial year, eight staff have been employed.
As well, through Access Canberra 69 labour hire roles had been transferred to permanent positions.
The CPSU also called for a 30 extra full-time employees for WorkSafe ACT.
Its submission said the safety watchdog needed to be properly resourced to enable strong regulatory oversight of occupational health and safety.
It comes as the agency was made independent from the ACT government last year, following a damning review that found the organisation had a low degree of autonomy.
“Our members in WorkSafe have been crying out for more resources for years,” Ms Northam said.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
