Lookout for Industrial Action from Unions
Dean Flowers
While strike action is highly anticipated when the twenty-one-day period expires, first vice president of the Public Service Union, Dean Flowers says that a work-to-rule campaign, as an initial form of industrial action, has already taken effect. He says this must occur because the unions see this as a fight against economic injustice and a push for good governance. And yes, these actions will lead to greater inconvenience for those who need to access services from public departments.
Dean Flowers, 1st Vice President, P.S.U.
“Effective today, public officers will be working to rule; that means that will be taking breaks as legislated, they will be taking lunch as they have a right to for an hour; they have a choice to decide whether or not they will be participating in overtime requests. This involves every single public officer. They are within their right in whether they want to participate in any activity that falls outside what is required of them in accordance with their terms of reference and their job description. So we ask for some patience by the general public. We’ve launched a work-to-rule campaign effective today and that continues straight up for twenty-one days. In addition to the work-to-rule, we will be implementing additional types of industrial action to ramp up our efforts to ensure that the government takes seriously the joint union team’s displeasure with the unilateral decision by the government to cut salaries, freeze increments for three years without looking at this thing from a more nationalistic and a macro level, but one that encompasses everybody and not only the workers of the public service.”
