Women to bear brunt of Debnam cuts

Date: 07 September 2006

Opposition leader Peter Debnam will put more than 15,000 women out of work and force others onto reduced wages and conditions under his plans to gut the NSW public service, the Public Service Association's Annual Women's Conference will hear today.

Anne Kennelly, Women's Industrial Officer at the PSA says women are in the firing line of job cuts and new workplace laws.

"The majority of frontline support workers in the public sector are women and Peter Debnam has vowed to cut more than 29,000 of these workers if elected," said Ms Kennelly.

"These are women who want to work and provide income support to their families."

More than 200 PSA members will attend the two day Annual Women's Conference in Sydney this week to hear from prominent academics, political leaders and workers about the impact of further job cuts and the introduction of WorkChoices.

Deputy Federal Labor leader Jenny Macklin MP says the Howard Government's IR legislation is disadvantaging women in the workplace.

"The reality is that many women work part time and rely on award conditions such as penalty rates and shift loadings to get by," says Ms Macklin. "Under WorkChoices, most working women in Australia are no longer entitled to these basic protections".

She says that reduced income, rising interest rates and petrol prices will leave many families struggling to pay the bills.

Carmel Tebbutt MP, NSW Minister for Education says maintaining the current state IR system will be crucial for the protection of women in the public sector.

"The Liberal Party seems determined to make life hard for Australian working women," says Ms Tebbutt.

"Peter Debnam's pledge to hand over the state IR powers to the Federal government if elected would see even more women exposed to a reduction in pay and conditions."

The PSA 2006 Annual Women's Conference runs 7th - 8th of September. Carmel Tebbutt MP will address the conference at 9:35am on Thursday and Jenny Macklin MP will speak from 11:00am on Friday.

For further information

Contact:	Lucy Muirhead
Union:	EMC
Contact Mobile:	0402 730 710
WWW:	http://psa.labor.net.au/

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