Confidence in CSIRO Executive’s commitment to staff consultation has tanked, amid growing fears of widespread job cuts and prompting union action to access legal dispute resolution procedures to protect employee rights.
CSIRO staff have reacted with concern at the announcement of plans to cut scores of jobs in multiple business units including Health and Biosecurity, Agriculture and Food as well as Manufacturing, combined with a larger, ongoing project to reduce the costs of enterprise support by 25 per cent.
Beyond growing fears for job security at CSIRO, staff have expressed dissatisfaction with Executive’s implementation of new rules designed to improve consultation and employee engagement across Commonwealth workplaces.
Early results of a Staff Association snap poll involving more than six hundred (658) union members revealed that only 12 per cent of respondents believed that CSIRO Executive was engaging in meaningful and genuine pre-decision consultation.
The remaining 88 per cent of participants were unsure (40%) or did not believe (48%) that Executive were fulfilling consultation obligations at CSIRO.
Acting on feedback relayed by concerned employees, Staff Association representatives have been engaged in talks with CSIRO over the past six weeks in a bid to improve consultation processes.
Specific member concerns include:
Following multiple useful, but ultimately frustrating discussions with Executive representatives, earlier this month Staff Association negotiators notified the union’s intent to lodge a formal dispute in protest of the interpretation and application of consultation processes contained in the enterprise agreement.
Through that dispute notification on consultation processes, the Staff Association also informed CSIRO Executive that, if a solution could not be agreed internally, of our intention to escalate the case to the independent umpire, Fair Work Australia, for ultimate legal resolution.
Staff Association representatives have continued to meet and exchanged correspondence with CSIRO with the aim of improving current consultation processes to comply with the legal obligations set out in the enterprise agreement.
This includes the development of a constructive, detailed, union plan that outlines what genuine and meaningful pre-decision consultation should look like.
We’ve requested and now received confirmation of a consultation extension in Health and Biosecurity to provide additional time for impacted staff to provide critical feedback, with the date now set for Wednesday 5 June 2024.
The Staff Association will also seek extensions for consultation processes in both Manufacturing as well as Agriculture and Food, as needed, based on member feedback.
While the most recent discussions with Executive on improving consultation have been positive, there’s still a long way to go. The Staff Association has called for a pause on any further restructures or potential job cut announcements until the consultation at CSIRO improves and the current dispute is resolved.
Staff Association members who are potentially affected by proposed cuts are encouraged to contact the union to arrange support and individual representation.
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