VICROADS has moved to quell a claim by the Australian Services Union it has plans to cut the numbers of its regional offices.
Following reports VicRoads was allegedly planning to reduce the number of its regions to four from seven at present, as highlighted by the ASU, VicRoads media manager Sally Pickering said the document ASU referred to was “an old, draft working document”.
The VicRoads Plan for our Future document, which was dated 1 June 2012, outlined a number of proposals with regard to its future.
“Any proposals or recommendations contained within it were for discussion only and have not been finalised,” Ms Pickering said.
VicRoads declined to comment on the status of individual regions, which included the Eastern division Traralgon and Bairnsdale offices.
In a media release last week, the ASU called on the State Government to “put an end to this ridiculous Sustainable Government Initiative” which included reducing the number of public sector workers by about 4000 state-wide, including 15 per cent of VicRoads’ workforce.
“The decision to cut a large number of VicRoads employees will leave so many stranded and will most certainly cripple those in regional areas across the state with proposed office closures and relocations,” the ASU said.
“Figures show that around 10 per cent of the VicRoads workforce is agency hire; if their management want to save money for the State Government, they should stop using expensive agency hire staff and put more permanent employees on.”
The ASU was not available for further comment at press time.
