Industrial action at Melbourne airport on Thursday morning was a “counterproductive exercise” that would not help pay negotiations between the government and the public sector, the federal employment minister, Eric Abetz, said.
Customs officers walked off the job for four hours causing lengthy lines for passengers going through security clearances. However, an airport spokeswoman said no flights were delayed.
The industrial action was organised by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and followed other stop-work action by public service sector workers across Australia over the past week, including at Queensland airport.
A union spokesman, Dermot Browne, said the sector was angry about job cuts, reduced allowances, cuts to rights and penalty rates, and increased hours, all of which made the federal government’s offer of a 1.5% pay increase redundant.
Customs officers could lose up to $8,000 a year from their take-home pay if allowances are cut, he said, and part-timers and casuals in Centrelink and Medicare would get less money for doing the same work.
“This government is pursuing an appalling agenda, leaving people worse off,” Browne said.
“We’ve been trying to sit down and talk for about 16 months to Eric Abetz, but he keeps refusing.”
Along with international airport staff, Medicare and Centrelink workers in Victoria also stopped work on Thursday morning to attend mass meetings at Melbourne town hall and the Geelong trades hall.
Abetz said the union was being unrealistic and had demanded a 12% pay increase.
“It would be a counterproductive exercise for the CPSU to organise industrial action in support of its claim for a 12% pay rise which is utterly unrealistic and would cost the jobs of 10,000 public servants,” he told Guardian Australia.
“We are in a very low inflationary environment and I’d encourage the CPSU to take a more responsible stance.”
A Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokeswoman said it was a “normal morning at Melbourne airport this morning, with minimal disruption as a result of the protected industrial action”.
The CPSU said more industrial action was planned if negotiations over pay continued to stagnate.
