Qld: Minister says union claims on jobs are nonsense
By John Sheed
BRISBANE, Aug 22 AAP - Services in regional areas of Queensland would not be affectedby the government's Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) scheme, despite union claims to thecontrary, Transport and Main Roads Minister Steve Bredhauer said today.
The Queensland Public Sector Union (QPSU) has accused the government of breaching itscommitment not to affect services in regional areas by slashing more than 300 road buildingjobs.
QPSU general secretary Alex Scott said the Department of Main Roads had last week offeredVERs for 308 positions or 10 per cent of its jobs over a range of occupations.
The move was part of the 1,000 public service job cuts announced in the state budgeton June 18, Mr Scott said.
Two hundred of the jobs would go from RoadTek, the government's road building and maintenanceunit, in regional areas of the state.
Mr Scott said this breached a budget commitment by Premier Peter Beattie and Main Roadsstaff could protest by taking industrial action.
But Mr Bredhauer said the union claims were nonsense because one of the criteria forthe VER scheme was that there be no impact on service delivery, especially in regionalareas.
The state's maintenance and construction capability was determined by funding and notstaff numbers.
"While the state government's funding for roads has increased by $37 million this year,the federal coalition government has slashed $78 million from the state's roads in theirbudget earlier this year," Mr Bredhauer said.
He said Queensland's road building and maintenance program for the next five yearsremained unchanged, with almost 70 per cent of the program being carried out by the privatesector and local government.
"The reality is Main Roads has been negotiating with the QPSU about RoadTek jobs forsix months and for the union to suggest otherwise is simply dishonest," Mr Bredhauer said.
AAP jfs/sc/dl/sb
KEYWORD: ROADS NIGHTLEAD
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