WA’s public sector union says cuts to the state’s Department of Justice will destabilise service delivery.

WA’s Department of Justice this week informed staff that it will implement a Voluntary Targeted Severance Scheme, cutting off a previous call for expressions of interest in severances.

The CPSU/CSA union - which represents public sector employees in Western Australia - accused the state Department of Justice of failing to comply with its legal obligations, saying it breached its industrial agreement by failing to consult with the union and staff.

“Consultation is a fundamental right that members have fought for and will continue to fight to uphold. This is clearly a short-sighted, rushed, and ill-advised approach to reducing their bottom-line,” the union said.

It is unclear how many positions will be cut, or what the delivery and savings costs will be.

“It is an expensive and unproductive process that rarely achieves its desired outcomes. It rarely, if ever, takes into account essential planning to ensure that services to the community are not undermined, destabilised or lost completely,” the union said.

“In many cases we see a significant loss of departmental knowledge, best-practices and cross sector understanding. Often, it is positions that are critical to the functioning of the department that go, leaving gaping holes of information and major impacts on service delivery.”

A recent union survey of public sector workers found half of respondents believed issues at their department were impacting service delivery. Of those respondents, 88 per cent said job vacancies and insufficient staffing are the cause of the issues.

The severance scheme emphasises the WA government’s “chronic underinvestment” in public sector services, the union said.

“With the state running a multi-billion-dollar budget surplus and the demand for public services continuing to increase, the government needs to be keeping up with community need, not cutting jobs and destabilising service delivery,” it said.

The WA public sector commissioner will soon review the factors that may prevent the state’s prisons from running efficiently, including employment and industrial frameworks, workforce management practices, and culture.

Additionally, the Department of Justice has been reviewing the resourcing needs and performance of each prison, as well as staffing and operational matters.