Union head Mr Tom Lynch now has no option but to follow his own advice and seek his members' views on our offer to save 300 jobs.
This morning, Mr Lynch said;
"If, at the end of the day, it was the only offer and it was put to us, at the very least we would have had to have taken it to our membership and they could have taken the call."*
As has been clearly demonstrated, on Monday, the Liberal Government, through its representatives, put such an offer to the Unions.
The offer, consistent with our previous public statements, was clear – in exchange for the unions agreeing to a 12 month pay freeze, we would endeavour to limit job losses to 900 over the Forward Estimates. This would save 300 jobs.
A 12 month freeze, if all the unions signed up, would provide around $30 million out of the $50 million in savings with an additional reduction in FTEs to make up the shortfall and save 300 jobs.
That offer still stands.
We would rather save jobs – the question now for Tom Lynch and other union leaders is will they take this offer to members, or will they continue to try and play politics, at the cost of 300 jobs?