Centrelink staff have called off strikes planned for next week after the union and department agreed to hold further talks about the protracted pay deal.
Department of Human Services staff – including Centrelink, child support and Medicare workers – had planned to strike next week over a range of issues.
They have been involved in three-year bargaining negotiations, and are angry about staff cuts, stagnant pay and broader problems within the department.
They had also highlighted the continuing furore surrounding Centrelink’s debt recovery system as evidence of the dysfunction within the department.
But the department sought to head off the planned strikes, lodging an application with the Fair Work Commission this week to halt the industrial action.
It said the strikes were not related to the enterprise bargaining, and were instead designed to put pressure on the government over the debt recovery system. That, it argued, made the industrial action unlawful.
The matter went before the commission on Friday morning, and the parties agreed to call off the strikes and instead engage in another week of bargaining negotiations.
The Community and Public Sector Union national secretary, Nadine Flood, said the union could take protected industrial action if the talks failed.
“We’re always willing to talk but after waiting three years for a resolution of this protracted dispute, the CPSU reserves our right to take further protected industrial action or other steps as required,” Flood said.
The strikes would have caused disruptions to telephone and face-to-face services on Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week.
