Environment Protection Job Cuts – Work to Rule

Staff at the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation have today begun to ‘work to rule’ in response to Government cutbacks in their Department.

The Department of Environment and Conservation was created last year by the amalgamation of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Resource NSW, and the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The State Government has cut the budget of the Department by $20 million, and told it to raise an additional $14 million in charges. These cuts took effect on 1 July, 2004. Nearly 300 positions have been cut.

John Cahill, Public Service Association of NSW (PSA) General Secretary said "Our members have had enough of this cut and chop approach to environmental protection and conservation.

"The environment is vitally important to the future well being of this State. And yet the Department charged with its protection and conservation has been emasculated. The reality is that the very Department which was telling those of us who smoke 'Don't be a tosser', is now tossing staff employed to look after the environment out of their jobs.

"The result is that the Department no longer has the staff to properly protect and conserve the State's environment."

PSA members are refusing to:

• take on the work of any deleted position;
• take on the work of any vacant position;
• work more than the hours they are paid to work.

The inevitable consequence is that a lot of important work is not being done.