Up to 4,200 Commonwealth public servants will lose their jobs as a result of measures in the 2012-13 budget, with 3000 expected to be made redundant over the next 14 months.

 

The CPSU is calling on the Government to guarantee that the job reductions will be done without forced redundancies.

 

CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood said "Finance Minister Penny Wong said last November that the Government had a 'strong expectation' that the 4 per cent efficiency dividend would be met without the need for forced redundancies.

 

"We welcomed Minister's Wong's statement at the time. Now that the budget position is finally known, we are seeking confirmation from the Government that there will be no forced redundancies," said Ms Flood.

 

The union also warned that cuts to the public sector will hit regional areas hard pointing out that two third of federal public servants are located outside Canberra.


"Some of the biggest cuts were in agencies with the largest regional footprint such as Tax Defence and Human Services," said Ms Flood.

 

"We are concerned that public servants in regional centres such as Toowoomba, Wagga Wagga, Newcastle, Nowra, Darwin, Townsville, Hobart and other towns will struggle to find other work if there are redundancies in their offices.  In many parts of regional Australia the federal public sector is one of the biggest employers.  It is vitally important that every effort is made to maintain public sector employment in regional areas where good jobs are hard to find," said Ms Flood.

 

"The public sector is not an inexhaustible source of savings for Governments. In many departments there is little or no fat left to cut, all that is left are the staff that run vital programs."

 

The union also warned that customers will feel the impact of the budget cuts through reduced services and increased waiting times.

 

"We are already seeing the impact of previous cuts on ordinary Australians and these measures will only make the situation worse," said Ms Flood.

 

"In DHS, Baby Bonus applications are taking up to 70 days to process and the Family Payments backlog has risen from 30,000 to 70,000 cases.  In DVA, Veterans are waiting up to 40 days to have pension increases processed. Customs is seeing delays at airports in peak times of up to 90 minutes", she said.