Customs and Border Protection industrial action
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Kendall Roy
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Take the 3% and shut up, or find another job!
medhead
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Indeed my pay increased $30k when I left public service to go to pseudo-private on a public service award. Work that one out
But basically even public services aren't equal. In my reviews commonwealth is paid less that some state PS. I also don't think my current 2.5% increases make up for the extra 15+% on base, I should be able to get in industry.
The CPSU has givin notice of further industrial action for next week (View attachment Notice of industrial action CPSU to Customs 22 Sep 2011.pdf - although the letter is dated 22/9, it was only released today). This is in addition to industrial action on Thursday and Saturday this week. The following is a quick summary of the times.
Sydney
Wednesday 5/10 5am to 10am & 6pm to 9pm
Thursday 6/10 5am to 10am & 6pm to 9pm
Saturday 8/10 5am to 10am & 6pm to 9pm
Melbourne
Wednesday 5/10 6am to 10am & 6pm to 10pm
Brisbane Wednesday 5/10 6am to 10am & 6.30pm to 10.30pm
Thursday 6/10 6am to 10am & 6.30pm to 10.30pm
Sydney
Wednesday 5/10 5am to 10am & 6pm to 9pm
Thursday 6/10 5am to 10am & 6pm to 9pm
Saturday 8/10 5am to 10am & 6pm to 9pm
Melbourne
Wednesday 5/10 6am to 10am & 6pm to 10pm
Brisbane Wednesday 5/10 6am to 10am & 6.30pm to 10.30pm
Thursday 6/10 6am to 10am & 6.30pm to 10.30pm
kpc
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clifford
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Well, as you all know, I'm hugely unsympathetic to their cause (whatever that might be).
Have you travelled in to / out of Australia in the last several years? Huge numbers of Customs people standing around when you arrive, but very few processing outgoing PAX when they are really needed.
And you really want these people to get a pay rise that is not justified? OK, if 10% of the Customs front-line workforce were sacked, I'd agree.
. If we wait til after 9 I imagine the queues will be looooooong.
Fifa
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I pity the poor people who parked their car at the airport to pick up their friends and rellies and had to pay for 3 hours :shock:
Maybe Australians with a chip passport using smart gate?
Jasecoop
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Agree, unfortunately thats life. They may give the pay rise along with redundencies. Just like the Qantas employees, there will be a point when they cant do business here and take off shore.
Agree with the other points, look for another job if you feel they treat you like cough
Industrial action planned for Sat 1 Oct, Wed 5 Oct and Thu 5 Oct has been cancelled.
The planned industral action for Sat 8 Oct will depend on outcomes of negotiations between Customs and Border Protection Management and CPSU next week.
I'll update AFF when the outcome of is announced next Friday.
The planned industral action for Sat 8 Oct will depend on outcomes of negotiations between Customs and Border Protection Management and CPSU next week.
I'll update AFF when the outcome of is announced next Friday.
ethernet
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Gee- averted because 'wont talk to you' not working.
There are many books on negotiations - win-win etc, but this little spat occurred because the negotiators limits are unrealistic and bounded by asserted claims. When the job cut card is played, that means deception before the agreement came due.
As for customs officers standing around - if true blame management, or look for wider reasons - training, observers, or coughatoo's. I don't hear anyone knocking quality, meaning fortress Australia. True, chopping 10% may only mean a few extra tons of drugs on the street, or a bit of horse flu. Foot N Mouth, and banana rust / fire blight here and there. Are you aware of observation intensity?
I have NEVER seen risk management statistics on staffing levels, so any cut will result in some quantitative easing. Simply put, all the fat/low hanging fruit has been picked, and all left is to tell lies about cut quality.
Be grateful Aussie is below USA inhospitality, and above SE Asia security levels. Customs do their job - almost to the prescribed levels. Deploy cuts, and more bad stuff gets through the net, simple as that.
There are many books on negotiations - win-win etc, but this little spat occurred because the negotiators limits are unrealistic and bounded by asserted claims. When the job cut card is played, that means deception before the agreement came due.
As for customs officers standing around - if true blame management, or look for wider reasons - training, observers, or coughatoo's. I don't hear anyone knocking quality, meaning fortress Australia. True, chopping 10% may only mean a few extra tons of drugs on the street, or a bit of horse flu. Foot N Mouth, and banana rust / fire blight here and there. Are you aware of observation intensity?
I have NEVER seen risk management statistics on staffing levels, so any cut will result in some quantitative easing. Simply put, all the fat/low hanging fruit has been picked, and all left is to tell lies about cut quality.
Be grateful Aussie is below USA inhospitality, and above SE Asia security levels. Customs do their job - almost to the prescribed levels. Deploy cuts, and more bad stuff gets through the net, simple as that.
Alanslegal
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Thanks for keeping us up to date CBP
I am a NSW public servant and my issue is not the 2.5% p.a wage rise. My complaint is the governments new legislation which restricts, even removes, the chance of an independent arbitrator ie. the Courts to hear and resolve matters of employment disputes. The Liberal government is stomping all over the notion of the Separation Of Powers and when they restrict the fundamentals of the judiciary, then that is bad. For example, they can create bad law (legislation) because they can (when having a majority) and then there will be no checks and balances to seek relief (ie the court).
In any instance, politically, the government tried to mitigate the public anger by allowing our important NSW Police Force the 4% rise. Sadly, the Police Association still supports the remaining public servants in their protests against the government. The remaining public servants will get a pay rise however must save costs. When we look at saving costs, one of the contributing areas is the is use of overtime. Imagine, a firefighter has a 8 hour shift ... it starts at 10am, finishes at 6pm. Now, they attend a factory fire at 5pm ...... fast forward to 6pm and the fire remains uncontained, now does the firefighter stop work at 6pm because their hours end?!? and now it hits overtime pay. (and remember, the whole department needs to save costs or risk losing their payrise). Reducing costs, (potentially) means a reduction in service to the community. So now instead of a firefighter team mopping up the scene, one or two of them are sent home (because of overtime then cost issue), it takes more time to clean up because of less manpower, then the NSW Police ends up waiting longer whilst the clean up is taking place. A degradation of service provided because instead of fighting crime, arresting a criminal, or even being a physical deterrent, the police officer/s is supervising a cleanup.
Similarly, like doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and so on now face cost savings, and the police now spends time with mental health patients, in emergency deparments, at schools patrolling school bullying and so on. No wonder why the NSW Police Force supports the remaining public servants even though they got their own pay rise.
Then you can add a whole range of other public sector duties to this, teachers for example. Some think they have the easiest jobs, loads of holidays, 5 days a week 9-3pm job. Well sadly, this is far from the truth! Who does the classwork preparations? Who marks exams? Write report cards? Be available for parent-teacher interviews? and so on. I am sure they spend loads of hours, outside of those 9-3 school time hours, doing things related to their work, and for their kids benefits. I'm not even a member of the union, but I support of all you public servant folks.
I could easily switch jobs, move into the private sector from where I use to be. I'm a Gen Y so moving around isn't an issue, and we all have double degrees anyway. I like my work-life balance, and using up my prescribed leave benefits does not mean I am lazy or useless. [Sure some are, just like in every single industry out there ... but a few bad apples should not tarnish the rest of us public servants who do a bloody great job].
I am a NSW public servant and my issue is not the 2.5% p.a wage rise. My complaint is the governments new legislation which restricts, even removes, the chance of an independent arbitrator ie. the Courts to hear and resolve matters of employment disputes. The Liberal government is stomping all over the notion of the Separation Of Powers and when they restrict the fundamentals of the judiciary, then that is bad. For example, they can create bad law (legislation) because they can (when having a majority) and then there will be no checks and balances to seek relief (ie the court).
In any instance, politically, the government tried to mitigate the public anger by allowing our important NSW Police Force the 4% rise. Sadly, the Police Association still supports the remaining public servants in their protests against the government. The remaining public servants will get a pay rise however must save costs. When we look at saving costs, one of the contributing areas is the is use of overtime. Imagine, a firefighter has a 8 hour shift ... it starts at 10am, finishes at 6pm. Now, they attend a factory fire at 5pm ...... fast forward to 6pm and the fire remains uncontained, now does the firefighter stop work at 6pm because their hours end?!? and now it hits overtime pay. (and remember, the whole department needs to save costs or risk losing their payrise). Reducing costs, (potentially) means a reduction in service to the community. So now instead of a firefighter team mopping up the scene, one or two of them are sent home (because of overtime then cost issue), it takes more time to clean up because of less manpower, then the NSW Police ends up waiting longer whilst the clean up is taking place. A degradation of service provided because instead of fighting crime, arresting a criminal, or even being a physical deterrent, the police officer/s is supervising a cleanup.
Similarly, like doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and so on now face cost savings, and the police now spends time with mental health patients, in emergency deparments, at schools patrolling school bullying and so on. No wonder why the NSW Police Force supports the remaining public servants even though they got their own pay rise.
Then you can add a whole range of other public sector duties to this, teachers for example. Some think they have the easiest jobs, loads of holidays, 5 days a week 9-3pm job. Well sadly, this is far from the truth! Who does the classwork preparations? Who marks exams? Write report cards? Be available for parent-teacher interviews? and so on. I am sure they spend loads of hours, outside of those 9-3 school time hours, doing things related to their work, and for their kids benefits. I'm not even a member of the union, but I support of all you public servant folks.
I could easily switch jobs, move into the private sector from where I use to be. I'm a Gen Y so moving around isn't an issue, and we all have double degrees anyway. I like my work-life balance, and using up my prescribed leave benefits does not mean I am lazy or useless. [Sure some are, just like in every single industry out there ... but a few bad apples should not tarnish the rest of us public servants who do a bloody great job].
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medhead
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That's not exactly my take on what is happening with the NSW public service. I/we got 2.5% in my area. The union (surprise I'm not a member) have had some win whereby the industrial relations commission have upheld the right to get more than 2.5% if offset by cost savings. But that is going to be a whole other argument and the cost savings can be from productivity improvements etc. The government is trying to limit the range of valid cost savings, for example the union claims they can show a cost saving of 4% (or something like that) over the last 3 years. Unsurprisingly in areas that the government apparent think are not valid.
Anyway, I have 2.5% backdated to July. Anything extra will require more arguing.
Anyway, I have 2.5% backdated to July. Anything extra will require more arguing.
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Putting aside the pay issue, I flew out of Sydney on Friday, and was the 3rd last to board QF11.
The customs queues in Sydney were horrendous and stretched well into the main international departure check in area. I was already late on the flight from ADL-SYD, despite QF changing my flight to an earlier flight which was subsequently delayed for over an hour.
I managed to sweet talk a QF staff member into giving me an express pass (I was only in Y) which meant that I got into the express queue which was only about 20M into the departure area!!!!!!
I won't comment on the LACK of customs staff at the desks (particularly priority lanes) to process the huge queues of passengers - many of whom were becoming VERY distressed about missing connections and flights.
I literally ran from customs (after the bloody explosive residue test, which I'm sure was intentionally slow) to the departure gate and just made it into 71D :mrgreen:. The flight left I think about an hour late or so, and there were many empty seats due to the fact that many passengers missed the flight (yes, that came from the CSM when I had a chat to him)
The flight was great, then we hit LAX (late!) AFTER a large number of asian flights arrived and it took just on 2 hours to clear LAX customs, which is the worst I have ever had there. I know its never good, but I have never had it that bad!
There were many on QF11 who were also very stressed at the loss of connections to flights within the US, and no one, including Qantas seemed to be doing anything to help them.
I was lucky, I didn't need to be here until Sunday, so I was not too stressed (but I didn't want to miss 71D!), but all this cough about not wanting to inconvenience the travelling public is a crock of ####.
Fortunately we didn't get the "Thank an Australian Qantas pilot" spiel because if we had, I reckon it would have been booed!
The customs queues in Sydney were horrendous and stretched well into the main international departure check in area. I was already late on the flight from ADL-SYD, despite QF changing my flight to an earlier flight which was subsequently delayed for over an hour.
I managed to sweet talk a QF staff member into giving me an express pass (I was only in Y) which meant that I got into the express queue which was only about 20M into the departure area!!!!!!
I won't comment on the LACK of customs staff at the desks (particularly priority lanes) to process the huge queues of passengers - many of whom were becoming VERY distressed about missing connections and flights.
I literally ran from customs (after the bloody explosive residue test, which I'm sure was intentionally slow) to the departure gate and just made it into 71D :mrgreen:. The flight left I think about an hour late or so, and there were many empty seats due to the fact that many passengers missed the flight (yes, that came from the CSM when I had a chat to him)
The flight was great, then we hit LAX (late!) AFTER a large number of asian flights arrived and it took just on 2 hours to clear LAX customs, which is the worst I have ever had there. I know its never good, but I have never had it that bad!
There were many on QF11 who were also very stressed at the loss of connections to flights within the US, and no one, including Qantas seemed to be doing anything to help them.
I was lucky, I didn't need to be here until Sunday, so I was not too stressed (but I didn't want to miss 71D!), but all this cough about not wanting to inconvenience the travelling public is a crock of ####.
Fortunately we didn't get the "Thank an Australian Qantas pilot" spiel because if we had, I reckon it would have been booed!
dfcatch
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Putting aside the pay issue, I flew out of Sydney on Friday, and was the 3rd last to board QF11.
The customs queues in Sydney were horrendous and stretched well into the main international departure check in area. I was already late on the flight from ADL-SYD, despite QF changing my flight to an earlier flight which was subsequently delayed for over an hour.
I managed to sweet talk a QF staff member into giving me an express pass (I was only in Y) which meant that I got into the express queue which was only about 20M into the departure area!!!!!!
I won't comment on the LACK of customs staff at the desks (particularly priority lanes) to process the huge queues of passengers - many of whom were becoming VERY distressed about missing connections and flights.
I literally ran from customs (after the bloody explosive residue test, which I'm sure was intentionally slow) to the departure gate and just made it into 71D :mrgreen:. The flight left I think about an hour late or so, and there were many empty seats due to the fact that many passengers missed the flight (yes, that came from the CSM when I had a chat to him)
The flight was great, then we hit LAX (late!) AFTER a large number of asian flights arrived and it took just on 2 hours to clear LAX customs, which is the worst I have ever had there. I know its never good, but I have never had it that bad!
There were many on QF11 who were also very stressed at the loss of connections to flights within the US, and no one, including Qantas seemed to be doing anything to help them.
I was lucky, I didn't need to be here until Sunday, so I was not too stressed (but I didn't want to miss 71D!), but all this cough about not wanting to inconvenience the travelling public is a crock of ####.
Fortunately we didn't get the "Thank an Australian Qantas pilot" spiel because if we had, I reckon it would have been booed!
Unfortunately, this was my experience last time I landed at LAX on QF11 as well (and we weren't particularly late), just the Asian flights got in first.
LAX is a disaster when it comes to processing at demand times.
The only good thing from this "may" be that the union wakes up and realises that it loses public support at a dramatic rate when it pulls BS like this.
IMHO - sack them all. If they don't want the job - there's plenty of unemployed people who do.
EDIT - Sorry - I assumed this delay was caused by the strike. My bad if it wasn't.
That said - if not strike - then I am surprised by such a backlog at SYD..?? Only when the power went out was there something similar. I am surprised - any ideas why such a backlog..??
Last edited:
Wow... and they weren't on strike on Friday. Just imagine how worse the line would have been if they did :shock:. It would have been absolute chaos. Thankfully, every time I've transited Sydney it's been quite.
It seems that this year's budget cuts are starting to hurt passengers. I was taken back when I saw this in the budget papers this year (yes I know - APS geek :mrgreen
but it seemed to have gone under the radar. How can they cut front line workers without hurting travelers? And this line was a cracker:What.. LAX? :shock:
Source: Budget Measures 2011-12 - Budget Paper No. 2 - Part 2: Expense Measures - Attorney‑General's
dfcatch
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Wow... and they weren't on strike on Friday. Just imagine how worse the line would have been if they did :shock:. It would have been absolute chaos. Thankfully, every time I've transited Sydney it's been quite.
It seems that this year's budget cuts are starting to hurt passengers. I was taken back when I saw this in the budget papers this year (yes I know - APS geek :mrgreen
What.. LAX? :shock:
View attachment 4038
Source: Budget Measures 2011-12 - Budget Paper No. 2 - Part 2: Expense Measures - Attorney‑General's
If savings are due to processing improvements such as Smartgate - then that's a great thing. By all means - save on excess staff.
But I would prefer to see the benchmarks set against current processing times, rather than international processing times.
ie. If they estimate that the saving will not negatively affect processing times - then great. Otherwise, of course it will hurt travelers.
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