The Big Issue: Fighting for Public Sector Workers

As Australia’s broadest, most diverse union, the AWU covers thousands of public sector workers across our nation’s roads, public gardens, hospitals, national parks and forests, care homes, local government, water infrastructure and youth detention centres. We remain a strong, united force of proud union members doing the work that underpins our very way of life.

The public sector is rife with layers of bureaucracy and government policies, service leaders and middle managers trying to squeeze budgets at the cost of our members’ wages and conditions, job security and safety. These workers deserve the very best – and the AWU is fighting every day to protect and strengthen entitlements in our public sector.

The fight for job security

Right now, the AWU Queensland Branch is standing strong to defend nearly 10,000 operational workers in Queensland Health. For decades, members have fought to stop the outsourcing of kitchen staff, wardspeople, cleaners and security guards, which now means operational staff are paid $8 to $12 an hour more than outsourced workers.

Through years of campaigning, AWU members won the strongest anti-outsourcing clause in Queensland Health, locking in secure, publicly delivered jobs. For months, the Crisafulli LNP Government has refused to guarantee these protections would remain, after Queensland Health indicated they would try to weaken them. Members responded with petitions, workplace and ballot meetings, showing they were ready to stand together to defend what had been won.

That show of strength has forced a shift. Queensland Health has now put an offer on the table that strengthens outsourcing protections for operational staff – a major concession from a government that had been refusing to engage with workers’ demands.

This step forward is not a gift; it was won through union power, built by members across the state. The fight is not over, but this achievement shows that when workers act together, we can move even the most resistant governments.

In WA, Liberal governments throughout the 1990s outsourced jobs across the state’s transport agency – Main Roads WA – and the number of employees plummeted from 2605 in the 1980s to just 819 in 2001. Backed by unions, including the AWU, the McGowan Labor Government announced a plan to reverse this outsourcing and create 660 secure, permanent jobs, with stronger pay and conditions.

Over several years, the WA Branch has worked closely with the WA government to implement the in-housing of hundreds of workers, and has recently locked in a new EA with a strong wage increase, new allowances and improved leave.

The fight for fair wages and conditions

When state governments want to be seen as ‘fiscally responsible’, it’s our workers who end up in the firing line, and the AWU has fought back against unfair wage caps implemented in several states.

AWU members in Tasmania have overwhelmingly rejected the Rockliff Liberal Government’s 3% wage increase, set to commence on the first of December. The union is also pursuing a new career path for bush firefighters and assisting members at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens regarding hours worked – because every worker deserves a decent wage increase and a fair go in a cost of living crisis. 

The Allen Labor Government in Victoria has also mandated a 3% wage cap for Victorian Government employees, including AWU members in Parks and Wildlife. That is why the Victorian Branch recently moved a motion at the Victorian Labor State Conference to scrap the wages policy – because if the rules themselves aren’t fair, then it’s up to us to lead the fight to change those rules and seek a better outcome for public sector workers!

The fight for fair wages also continues at the local government level. Our South Australian Branch has also secured strong pay increases for workers in recent years, fighting for CPI-or-better agreements at the West Torrens, Charles Sturt, Campbelltown, Norwood Payneham, Unley, Playford and Onkaparinga Councils.

We’re also working to insert union power clauses in new agreements, and have an upcoming delegates’ training day, so workers can get the skills and knowledge to flex their new rights and entitlements at work. It’s time to lift the standards across the state and ensure no council worker is left behind.

The fight for safety

Our members find themselves facing unacceptable levels of violence, safety risks, and attacks on the WHS standards we’ve won after decades of fighting. In Queensland, the AWU fought back in response to a chronic staffing shortage across the youth detention system, leaving centres at capacity. This was leading to extreme violence towards workers, met with hand-waving and apathy from management, who refused to accept that low wages made it extremely difficult to attract and retain skilled staff.

Delegates stood firm and took action, walking off the job on WHS grounds and demanding increases to wages and allowances to help fill vacancies and ease the overwhelming workload of existing staff. This campaign also led to an average pay rise of $11,000 a year per worker, and since then the Department of Youth Justice has been actively recruiting to fill vacant operational roles.

WHS also includes the mental health and well-being of workers, which is why the AWU NSW Branch has been working with the Minns Labor Government in NSW to ensure our public sector members in Forestry, National Parks, Road and Transport have access to the critical support they deserve as first responders. Our members are often first on the scene at bushfires, road accidents and floods in rural and remote NSW, the heroes on the front line of some of our worst disasters. Thanks to this new policy, workers exposed to traumatic incidents will now have access to peer-support services and clinical care when they need it.

Across Australia, the AWU fights every day for industry-leading conditions, job security, and safety at work. We do this by standing together and taking action. Labor or Liberal, local or state government, only one thing matters, and that is getting the best outcome possible for our members.

But we know there’s still more work to be done across our public sector, and the AWU will continue to build power and campaign at every level of government, to speak up for the workers who keep our services running. That is why it’s important for all members to do their part and support their union. We’re always stronger together!