Australia Day public holiday – Monday 27 January 2014
Reasonable Hours
The perennial issue of hours of work for regional Duty Commanders has reared its ugly head again, with a number of members contacting the Union concerned about the unreasonable expectations held by senior management regarding their hours of work.
All members are reminded that regardless of what your line manager might want, or expect, you are only required to work the hours set out in your roster. To do otherwise means you work for free.
Consequently, DCs on the special roster are instructed to only work their rostered hours, unless on overtime. This is not a matter of debate – it is an Award entitlement.
Police D&D reforms “value for money”
The Sydney Morning Herald’s front page on 23 December “NSW, the premium state: $100 million sum for a $133,000 payout” reported that the O’Farrell Government’s 2011 overhaul of the police D&D scheme had produced a huge turnaround in claims – and a huge windfall for the insurer. The average benefit to the handful (literally) of injured police who did successfully claim fell from $480K to less than $20K each.
A government spokesman defended this $100M payment for this $133K return as “value for money”. Opposition Leader John Robertson was closer to the mark when he accused O’Farrell of “lining the pockets of insurance companies”, as was the Greens’ David Shoebridge who said the insurer “must be laughing all the way to the bank at the sheer incompetence of the O’Farrell government”.
Medicare under threat
Medicare – one of the great social reforms of modern Australia – is under threat. Tony Abbott is considering a proposal to charge sick people $6 whenever they go to the doctor. The idea has been raised as part of the government’s audit commission of cuts. It is a sick tax that will disadvantage low-income workers and needlessly drive people to – already overstretched – hospital emergency rooms, and is very much the thin edge of the wedge. $6 today, how much tomorrow?
For almost forty years we have been able to hold our heads up high and be proud that every Australian has access to a world-class universal health system. It is too valuable to be messed around with.
Send Tony Abbott a strong message – don’t mess with Medicare. Let your Federal MP know how important Medicare is to you and your family.
Australia Day public holiday – Monday 27 January 2014
The Union office has received several queries as to whether Monday 27 January is an additional public holiday. The answer is that although Monday 27 January 2014 has been proclaimed as the Australia Day public holiday it is not an additional public holiday. In this case, the public holiday has simply been moved from Sunday 26 January to the Monday, and therefore does not attract extra consolidated leave.
Jim Casey
State Secretary
For a printable copy of this SITREP, please click here.
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