CPSU/CSA wins action on workload

Date: 24 October 2000

CPSU/CSA members employed at the Western Australian Education Department have agreed to lift all current work bans in a long-running dispute with the Department over wages, conditions and work-load issues.

The bans have been lifted pending members' endorsement of a draft enterprise bargaining agreement negotiated between the Union and the Education Department.

The Union said negotiations have been underway with the Department since the August 29 stop-work meeting of a thousand Education staff, including laboratory technicians, library staff, registrars, school social trainers, school officers and administrative personnel, and public servants from the Department's Central and District Offices.

The stop-work meetings - held in Perth, towns throughout the South West and other areas around WA - voted for the implementation and escalation of a range of work-bans, including a ban on the answering of phones, faxes and e-mails in schools, district offices and Education Department headquarters, and bans on the preparation - or assistance with the preparation - of GST Business Activity Statements.

CPSU/CSA Branch Secretary, Dave Robinson, said members took action following the failure of the Department to honor commitments to address issues of work-load or negotiate a reasonable pay outcome without trade-offs.

But intense negotiations between the Department and Union delegates over the past few weeks has seen consensus on a draft enterprise bargaining agreement which will now be sent out to a ballot of union members.

The draft agreement provides for:

• an increase from $3.8 million to $5.6 million for additional staff days in 2001, with these funds being applied recurrently from now on
•six per cent pay rise over two years, with no trade-offs in working conditions
•a further review of the work-load of school registrars, school officers, library and laboratory staff
•an audit of entry Level fixed-term contract employment, with a view to greater levels of permanency
•a review of the work value and classification structure of School Support Staff

Mr Robinson said members had made it clear to the Department all along that the key issue of concern related to adequate staffing levels to address chronic work-load problems, rather than salary increases alone. This has also gained the support of a number of P&C's.

For further information

Contact:	CPSU/CSA
Union:	Western Australian Unions
Phone:	08 9323 3800

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