How about some Justice for DOJ Geelong?

CPSU was advised last Thursday 30 July that a major alteration to security arrangements was about to occur at Geelong CCS/Justice centre. The reception area counter was about to have its safety barriers removed, exposing frontline staff to the safety risks that lead to the barriers being installed originally.

This was occurring in spite of DOJ facing similar OHS disputes at other centres.

CPSU raised these concerns with Fair Work Australia (FWA) and Worksafe Victoria. Despite this, DOJ refused to delay commencement of the work on Friday afternoon. Fair Work Australia has demanded that DOJ produce documents relating to the rationale, consultation and approval processes despite DOJ s claim of proper consultation.

Worksafe Victoria visited the site mid Friday afternoon.

Discussions with the parties indicated significant problems with both the selection process for appointing an OHS Representative and consultation with staff.

Worksafe is now contacting individual staff to establish the level of the consultation that DOJ claims it conducted and will report back by Thursday 6 August.

Worksafe has also outlined that elections for the OHS representative need to be conducted in accordance with the OHS Act. Local management have indicated that a new Designated Work Group (DWG) will need to be established as the Justice centre now represents a broad range of services with increased staff numbers. CPSU acknowledges this and will participate in establishing the new DWG and proper selection and training of OHS Reps.

Despite CPSU raising these significant issues with WorkSafe and FWA, including time to conduct a proper enquiry, DOJ refused to delay any commencement of the works unless specifically directed by a legally binding sanction not to do so.

They did this knowing that this would be near impossible so late in the process and knowing that work had already commenced.

CPSU has grave concerns about DOJ s adherence to consultative processes under the VPS agreement. DOJ s response at FWA was not surprising to the CPSU.

CPSU will meet with staff later this week to report back on process and any enquiries can be directed to Mike Atkinson on 52613366 or Justice Organiser Robyn Edwards on 9639 1822.

Please distribute this bulletin and ask your colleagues to join CPSU to have their voice heard and views represented.

JIM WALTON

Acting Victorian Branch Secretary

Tuesday 04 August 2009