ODPP work bans to continue – Director’s comments

The PSA Industrial Bulletin issued on 7 October 2003 has been the subject of criticism by the Director who says that "the number of funded positions has been increased by a total of 61.6 positions since 2002/03 - a 10.8% increase. 16 of those are additional WAS positions."

The PSA is of course to some extent hamstrung, as it is ODPP management itself that chooses how to present staffing/budgetary statistics. However it was ODPP management itself that presented the following picture to the PSA as to the additional funding obtained by the ODPP:

• The average staffing for the previous financial year, prior to the disastrous March 2003 cuts, was 588 - of these only 572 positions were Treasury funded;

• According to management figures, the funding provided under the budget supplementation amounted to funding for 591 positions (an increase of 3 positions over the average staffing of 588 referred to above), with an additional $113,00 for extra staff for the current financial year, and also funding for 26 WAS positions;

• Only by re-allocating the funding from 10 of the 26 WAS positions - and thus depriving the Witness Assistance Service of the ability to expand its current scope of charge coverage - has ODPP management been able to provide on average just over one extra solicitor per office (counting all of Sydney city as one office) and on average about 1.5 administrative extra positions per office, compared to the position pre-March 2003; to this must be added the government's cutting of funding to private witness support groups, thus putting further pressure on WAS officers, and stress on solicitors who de facto have to perform this role more and more;

• Thus whilst the obtaining of a budgetary enhancement of funded positions is a victory in part due to PSA pressure, the fact to remember is that the relevant increase is the increase in "bums on seats": No-one is asserting that this difference will be such as to even approach a satisfactory resolution of our current workload problems, let alone any anticipated increases in workloads;

• Workloads, unregulated by work bans, would generally return to the unacceptable levels experienced before March 2003. All the PSA action, including the strike and work bans would have achieved very little. However members applying the bans have been able to relieve the unacceptable stress under which they had been working and to "reclaim their lives", thus ensuring the health and safety of members in a way that management had not been able to achieve; this in itself is a powerful extra reason to maintain these bans.

• To the extent that the decision was made by Treasury to not follow the Budget Review recommendation which would have allowed three times as much funding for extra staff was a "political" one - in the broadest sense of that term - pressure can and should be maintained on Treasury that this decision should be changed - especially as the ODPP is obliged to submit budget estimates for possible budget enhancements for next financial year next month!

Thus all members are urged to maintain the bans both to maintain pressure on the Government and so as to preserve their own health and well-being.

Copies of all 4 industrial bulletins, which cumulatively comprise the full terms of the current bans, are available from your delegates or by email from Andrew Dziedzic, or just follow the links at the bottom of this page.

If you have any queries in relation to the above issues, please contact your local delegate or Andrew Dziedzic (02 9285 8862) or our Industrial Officer at the PSA, Stephen Spencer (02 9220 0926).

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