Threat to your rights at work lands ABS in Court

Recent media
Read an article from Workplace Express here.

CPSU has been working hard over the last five months to get ABS management to recognise your rights at work under the new Government’s IR policy. Not only has ABS management refused to recognise the need for change, they are threatening your CPSU delegates for performing basic union activities such as distributing union information. CPSU is taking ABS to the Federal Court to defend delegates and your rights against this threat.

What happened?
Your delegates used their own time to distribute a CPSU bulletin about some employees receiving lower superannuation. Because the bulletin was offered to all employees – not just union members – the Australian Statistician, Brian Pink, wrote to the CPSU threatening APS Code of Conduct action against the delegates who distributed the bulletin. We have asked ABS on several occasions to withdraw their threat. When ABS failed to do so, we had no choice but to take them to the Federal Court.

Protect Your Rights at Work
Your ability to protect and improve your pay and conditions depends on a fundamental right to choose: to join a union, to bargain collectively, to be represented by your union, and to receive union information. Put simply, we believe ABS are using threats to prevent union activity that is considered normal and reasonable across most of the public service. ABS’s approach is more like “freedom from information”. It’s not only this case - in bargaining for the ABS Interviewers, the ABS has refused to allow the CPSU to send information to Interviewers or to meet with them. CPSU has repeatedly offered to ABS to meet and address their concerns.

Your new rights
The new Australian Government Employment Bargaining Framework provides you with new rights. It is now Government policy that:

• ‘every employee is free to decide whether or not to join and be represented by a union. It is unlawful for anyone to try to stop an employee exercising this choice by threats…’
• ‘Agencies should facilitate access to their representatives. This includes the provision of information to employees by their representatives.’

You can find out more about the Framework at http://www.cpsu.org.au/issues/news/6107.html. 

Threatening delegates breaks the law
Not only is union activity recognised in government policy, it’s also protected by law. The Workplace Relations Act gives you the right to ‘freely associate’ in a union if you choose. This also protects union delegates in fulfilling their role in the workplace, provided they are doing legitimate union activity.

Your delegates work for you
Your union delegates are volunteers committed to assist you in the workplace. They help when a member has a concern and work hard to ensure you have a safe workplace and get a fair deal in bargaining pay and conditions. And with a non-union agreement and some of the lowest pay rates in the APS, having active and effective ABS delegates has never been more important. Your delegates do not deserve to be threatened and scared by ABS for undertaking this important work. By joining your union you support your delegates’ efforts for a better deal for all ABS employees.

What happens now?
Your union remains willing to meet with ABS to resolve this matter. It is up to ABS to agree to withdraw their threat and propose a settlement.

This Federal Court action puts public service employers on notice that your union will act to protect against discrimination and breaches of employees’ rights.

ABS workers should contact andrew.smith@cpsu.org.au with your feedback and to find out how to get involved