The South Australian Government has announced it will cancel its planned $53 million in public sector worker entitlement cuts after a protracted dispute with unions.

 

The State Government announced that it would back down from the cuts on the proviso that it maintains the right to sack workers who cannot find alternative positions in the public sector within 12 months once a position had been made redundant.

 

The move to reduce leave accrued from 15 to five days for employees who had been in the public sector over 15 years sparked a row with unions. The Government had stated that the move would have saved $90.7 million over four years.

 

According to an article in The Australian, the SA Government is planning to cut a further 400  full-time-equivalent positions in the state budget, following the shedding of almost 3750 positions last September.

 

The Australian reported that senior cabinet sources had said that Treasurer Jack Snelling "was adamant that the move was required to offset the cost to his budget of reversing last year's contraversial decision to cut long-service leave entitlements and annual leave loading payments to public sector workers."