Message from the Assistant General Secretary

Natasha Brown, PSA Assistant General Secretary

PSA STRONG IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY

by Natasha Brown

This year has been a challenging one for many of us. Both the bushfire crisis and coronavirus pandemic have wrought incredible hardship on our community.

Many of our members have had to cope with the pressures of implementing the state’s emergency response and providing life-saving support to our community, while at the same time dealing with the personal impacts these disasters have had for themselves and their families.

And throughout it all, our state government has continued its relentless attack on the public service – making your jobs all the more difficult by under-resourcing, undermining, cutting and privatising the government services South Australians increasingly rely on.

The strength, resilience and tenacity of our members throughout these difficult times has been outstanding. What is even more remarkable is that members are not merely coping with these challenges, you are surmounting them and achieving significant wins.

PSA Worksite Representatives (WSRs) in all agencies have been active in making sure members’ views and issues are raised and worked through collectively. WSRs have contributed to some significant wins in their workplaces.

For example, PSA WSRs in TAFE worked with members to reduce the number of positions lost as part of multiple restructures. WSRs in Residential Care worked with members to reject a move by management requiring 18 months notice for annual leave. There are many similar stories of PSA WSRs fighting hard for our members’ rights across all agencies.

Our PSA Organising Team has been busy working with WSRs and members through numerous restructures, matters arising from COVID-19, and other workplace changes and issues of concern to members. Our Industrial Team has supported thousands of members with individual workplace issues and had some important wins for members.

PSA members have continued to provide an exemplary service to our community.

We are continuing to combat the scourge of insecure employment in the public sector. So far this year hundreds of PSA members have been successfully converted to ongoing including conversions to permanency for more than 130 staff in the SA Housing Authority and Country Arts SA.

We are continuing to challenge agencies for misuse of term contracts where work is genuinely ongoing in nature.

We also continue to campaign strongly against public sector job cuts and privatisation as part of our long-term SA Not For Sale and I Am Essential campaigns. Members’ strong and consistent community campaigning has been producing tangible and encouraging results.

Recent research commissioned through SA Unions shows that the majority of the public now believe government-run services are cheaper and overall better than private services.

When asked what personal impact the privatisation of public services had on their day-to-day lives, more than 50% responded “negative” or “very negative” and only 4% believed that privatisation had a “very positive” impact. Sentiments of trust and support for public sector workers are also generally high.

Getting the voting public on our side and using community engagement to help us shift political debate and opinion has been an important part of our union campaign strategy since the beginning and will continue to be a significant focus moving forward.

This approach has proved very successful so far, with several major campaign wins this year including the government committing not to privatise the SA Motor Registry, backflipping on a previous decision to close three busy Service SA offices, and confirming that SA Pathology will remain in public ownership.

On top of all of these achievements, PSA members have continued to provide an exemplary service to our community, stepping up in the face of significant disruption and uncertainty and ensuring that South Australians are well supported and protected.

PSA members can take great pride in these achievements, and the wonderful work you continue to do every day, both for our community and for our union.