Let’s promote public science

We recognise our members’ passion for science and we’re keenly interested in sharing that passion with the community and with the Federal Government. CPSU is already talking to the Government about the benefits of service-wide bargaining through Science meets Parliament but we need your help to better advocate for public sector science.

Service-wide bargaining - a better way to bargain

After more than a decade of agency-based bargaining the current system we have is a fragmented public service riddled with inequities in classifications, pay and conditions. CPSU is talking with the Government to address these inequities  to ensure agencies are funded for the work they perform and we close the pay gaps by raising the standards for all employees. We see service-wide bargaining as the solution to these inequities and a better way to bargain. This will affect members working in Public Service Act agencies.

FASTS’ Science meets Parliament today and tomorrow

Science meets Parliament is an annual conference in Canberra which aims at building closer bonds between people who work on science and politicians. Taken from a range of science areas, this year’s CPSU contingent to SmP will be six early to mid-career scientists:

• Three from the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO),
• One from the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA),
• One from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and
• One from the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO).

CPSU Science delegates meeting 16 March

Given the increasing focus of Government to a sector wide approaches, the CPSU and the CSIRO Staff Association believes more coordination is needed between members in science agencies so that we can more effectively represent the work you do, to Government and the community. By promoting independence and ‘public-good’ science in the APS, we will be better able to advocate publicly for the work that you do and for stable and ongoing funding. CPSU and the CSIRO Staff Association believes that properly resourced science starts with ideas and communication so it’s important that members work together and collaborate as a union across the public sector.

We will be holding a meeting with delegates in science agencies on 16 March to discuss what more can be done and to feedback information from SmP. If you would like to be involved in CPSU science, please email science.cpsu@cpsu.org.au

The good work of the CPSU in the science arena and in your workplace only happens when people work together as a union.