Public servants protest floating jobs
Union members at the New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) have taken to the streets.
Staff from offices in Parramatta and Haymarket were protesting plans to move ServiceFirst jobs off-shore.
ServiceFirst provides a range of employee and workplace support services, including payroll, recruitment, records management and library services for the NSW Government
Public Service Association of NSW (PSA) staff who work in human resources, information communications and technology, finance and payroll joined about 150 workers from FACS and ServiceFirst in their demonstration at the office of Member for Parramatta, Geoff Lee.
Mr Lee is the deputy chair of the NSW Parliaments' Public Accounts Committee, one of the most important committees in the New South Wales parliament.
Assistant General Secretary of the PSA, Steve Turner, said the union believed up to 240 of the 300 positions at ServiceFirst were heading overseas.
The agency’s Outsourcing Program has raised concerns about the privacy and security of sensitive government data.
“These workers have turned ServiceFirst into an award-winning business, yet the Government is still planning to offshore their jobs,” Mr Turner said.
“Walking off the job is a big step for any public sector worker but it shows just how angry and disillusioned these workers are with their treatment by the Government and the concern they have for the future of the services they provide.
“Workers know that what is happening in ServiceFirst is another chapter of what this Government has in store for the rest of the NSW public sector,” he said.
The PSA says that beyond the hundreds of ServiceFirst jobs that may be lost, the move send a scary message to the 30,000 people within the NSW public sector with jobs similar to those carried out by ServiceFirst.
Mr Turn said anyone could be “next in line for outsourcing”.