AN ONGOING war being fought by the region’s public service workers to protest cuts to jobs, services and work rights continued with another meeting organised by the Public Service Association (PSA) in Tamworth yesterday.
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The “Death by a Thousand Cuts” meeting for delegates and regional members was also attended by the association’s general secretary Anne Gardiner.
Public Service Association regional organiser Steve Mears said the representatives from various public sectors present at the meeting helped to formulate an action plan to be rolled out across the local region to support a wider state initiative to fight back against the cuts.
Among the recent cuts the PSA is fighting are reforms to senior and middle management.
Mr Mears said a recent state government decision to adopt reforms openly targeted the jobs of senior and middle management in the NSW public sector.
He said while the NSW government was arguing the reforms would boost frontline services, the changes were, in fact, nothing more than the latest wave of attack on public sector jobs and employment security.
“They target the professionalism, capacity and integrity of these positions and the public sector itself,” Mr Mears said.
Mr Mears said local workplace groups were now being encouraged to meet informally to identify local impacts to their working environment as a result of the cuts that had been made already.
“We would like those groups to put together a one-to-two-page letter detailing what their job is, what they do and what impact losing their office or some roles from their office would have on their ability to provide a service to the community,” Mr Mears said.
Those letters will then be used as the base of representations to the state government appealing for it to be smarter when it considers cutbacks.
“What we are saying is, if there have to be cuts, proper reviews of what’s needed to deliver a public service and what’s not are needed before the decision is made to just axe a job,” Mr Mears said.
“As much as these cuts threaten individuals they also impact the wider community and we don’t want the community to miss out or be left with reduced services.”
