Scientists and workers at the CSIRO are sliding towards industrial action as negotiations for a new enterprise agreement stall.
They would join researchers and other staff at Geosciences Australia, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, the Department of Environment and 10 other public sector organisations taking or planning industrial action.
The CSIRO staff association was granted permission on Friday to hold a secret ballot of its members which, if passed, could see work bans, stoppages or strikes.
The ballot is expected to be held next Friday, with action to begin in late April, just weeks before the next federal budget.
“Negotiations for a new enterprise agreement have effectively stalled. The major stumbling block is CSIRO management’s support for the federal government’s unworkable bargaining policy, which mandates cuts to working conditions, rights and pay,” the CSIRO union’s secretary, Sam Popovski, said.
“CSIRO staff are frustrated and dismayed by management’s decision to target their workplace rights and conditions, especially following the brutal cuts to jobs and research.”
Guardian Australia revealed in November that the job cuts at the research agency would likely number nearly 900 this financial year and hit researchers and scientists hardest. The cuts follow an internal restructure, the imposition of an efficiency dividend and a federal funding cut amounting to $115m.
If jobs are lost at the forecast rate, the organisation will have shrunk by 20% in the past two years.
This round of federal public sector agreements is the first under the Abbott government’s new bargaining policy, which prohibits wage increases unless they can be traded for conditions or productivity increases.
