Fair Work sponsored conciliation before Commissioner Smith has reached its end.

Commissioner Smith has issued a Statement late this afternoon (Thursday) following a final attempt by CPSU State Secretary Karen Batt to convince Treasury Deputy Secretary Dean Yates that the productivities put forward by the union should invoke in return a reasonable pay offer from the Government.

No improved pay offer was forthcoming.  

The Government's simultaneous announcement of job redundancies today exposed the duplicity of the Government's attitude toward our bargaining and was undisputably disrespectful to the workforce and to Fair Work.

Commissioner Smith concluded that;

  'Given the genuine position of the parties, continuation of discussion appears to me to have reached its natural conclusion.' .....  'However, the stage has now been reached where both parties have genuine, considered and defensible views and as a consequence agreement eludes them. It follows that it is no longer appropriate for me to ask that the pause (protected industrial action) remain in place.'

Commissioner Smith, in the full knowledge that CPSU members would now excalate the protected action, said;

  'If, indeed, conciliation is at an end between the parties, and the consequences of them exercising their bargaining strengths would have a significant impact, in terms of s.424 of the Act, they can put a common submission to Fair Work Australia to that effect.  No time would be lost; no wages would be forfeited; workplace relationships would not deteriorate; conflict impacting upon the public would be avoided and reasoned argument could be the alternative approach.'

Commissioner Smith is forecasting that our bargaining, specifically the impasse on wages, could be determined by Fair Work through arbitration.

Visit here to view Commissioner Smith's Statement;

CPSU has tonight sent notifications to Government Employers of our intention to escalate the protected action commencing Wednesday 21 December 2011.

This will prompt the Government to respond by applying to curtail all our bargaining.

Fair Work may intervene and determine the wages to be paid.

The behaviour of our membership to respect Fair Work's request to pause the escalation of our protected industrial action whilst conciliation was being facilitated is acknowledged.

I thank our members for the discipline displayed.

  ** 2.5% is NOT enough Mr Baillieu **

Enjoy our fairpay4fairwork video on youtube.

Visit http://www.cpsuvic.org for all our protected action information.

Our Agreement expired almost 6 months ago and with the State Government picking winners by paying Police 17.5% over 4 years plus $1,000 sign on bonuses while rejecting all our monetary based claims and all our ‘productivity’ suggestions our protection action can now commence as members prepare for the next stages in our bargaining to secure a real pay rise.

Join our Virtual Campaign and call on the Government to bargain in good faith and adequately fund public services.


ORGANISE YOUR WORKPLACE NOW.

Follow all our bargaining updates on twitter -

  - CPSU_Vic #baillieubargaining

Visit http://www.cpsuvic.org for all the bargaining information.

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


TOGETHER WE DO BETTER!

http://www.cpsuvic.org/public_docs/Work-Can-Change-membership-flyer.pdf
http://www.cpsuvic.org/public_docs/memform.pdf


KAREN BATT
CPSU Victorian Branch Secretary

Friday 16 December 2011