Jobs Department faces major staff cuts under public sector restructure
By Rachel Eddie
Creative Victoria’s music and screen workers could all be made redundant in a restructure proposal that sparked a mass meeting of union members at the Jobs Department on Monday.
The public sector is anticipating up to 3000 lay-offs as part of the Silver review, which Treasurer Jaclyn Symes will release in coming months with government decisions on what to cut.
The Jobs Department has told staff about a proposed restructure that would cut about 100 jobs. Treasurer Jaclyn Symes is set to release a review into the public sector.Credit: Getty Images
Symes baked 1200 job losses into the May state budget, having received interim recommendations from the review, which has been led by Helen Silver, a former top bureaucrat in Labor and Coalition governments.
The Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions told staff on Thursday about a proposed restructure that would cut about 100 jobs.
“To deliver its key priorities, the government has identified the need to achieve more than $3 billion in savings and efficiency measures across the public sector,” consultation documents obtained by The Age said.
“Where required, changes are being proposed so the department can continue to be as efficient and effective as possible while still achieving savings targets. In some cases, this will mean reprofiling [the department’s] workforce. In others, it will mean winding back our work to align with our funding profile.”
Members of the Community and Public Sector Union at the department held a mass meeting on Monday after the restructure was announced last week.
The proposal would affect Creative Victoria; Corporate Services; Economic Policy, Programs and Services; Industry, Trade and Investment; the Office of the Secretary; Regional Development Victoria; Skills and TAFE; Sport and Experience Economy Group; and the Victorian Skills Authority.
Creative Victoria’s “creative investment” team would be slashed under the proposal, which appears to cut every worker in the music and screen area.
The final structure will be announced in September after consultation with staff.
The department said it had begun proposing changes to fall in line with savings set out in the state budget.
“[The department] is currently focused on consulting with staff and union representatives on the proposed changes,” a spokesman said. “[The department’s] proposals aim to achieve the right composition of roles and capabilities to deliver Victorian government priorities.”
Jiselle Hanna, the newly elected Victorian secretary of the union, said the government had other options than cuts.
“It’s not even released yet, but this is the Silver review slashing by stealth,” Hanna said. “This needless austerity is already cutting essential services and jobs. “We’re fighting back and mobilising our growing membership.”
On Sunday, Premier Jacinta Allan said the government would release the Silver review in its own time.
“We’ll be taking our time to carefully consider the report and release our government’s response to that,” Allan said.
The government insists no frontline roles will be affected.
The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, in its review into COVID-19 debt-saving measures from 2023-24, found last week that “most departments planned to deliver savings without cutting frontline workers but lacked a consistent approach to identifying these roles”.
“Not all departments could show how they applied their frontline worker definitions,” it said.
Net debt in Victoria is forecast to hit $194 billion in four years.
S&P Global last week reaffirmed Victoria’s AA credit rating, saying it expected the state to control costs, but noting the government had previously failed to implement workforce savings.
Safer Care Victoria also announced a proposed restructure to staff last month.
“Safer Care Victoria is undertaking an organisational restructure to ensure it can continue to meet the evolving needs of our health services and their consumers,” a spokeswoman said. “This is part of a long-term strategy and is focused on strengthening the agency’s ability to deliver better, safer healthcare to all Victorians.”
Separately, Eastern Palliative Care last week made all its music, massage and occupational therapists redundant. The nine positions were not covered under a contract with the Department of Health.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said funding for palliative care had increased.
“Eastern Palliative Care Association have advised the Department of Health they are reviewing their resourcing to ensure continued provision of home-based palliative care services to patients and their families in their community.”
The Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association said the nine workers had been given a week’s notice and launched a dispute in the Fair Work Commission, where mediation is continuing.
“This budget crisis hasn’t occurred overnight, and yet staff are supposed to ‘move on’ within a week,” association executive officer Andrew Hewat said in a statement.
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