SOUTH Australian unions have likened cuts to their entitlements in the recent state budget to former prime minister John Howard's Work Choices laws.
Public sector union leaders met in Adelaide today and voted unanimously to rally against state government plans to axe more than 3000 jobs, slash loading payments on annual leave and cut long service leave entitlements.
SA Unions Secretary Janet Giles says new legislation which has been "rushed" through SA's lower house will override previously negotiated agreements for entitlements.
"It's basically the same sort of mechanism that John Howard used when he legislated away the right to collectively bargain," Ms Giles told the union meeting.
"We would never have expected a Labor premier and a Labor treasurer to have picked up the same tactics.
"It's a slap in the face for the rights of workers to collectively bargain and bargain in good faith."
The unions will rally at lunchtime on Friday and Ms Giles wouldn't rule out strike action, which she said was a matter for the individual unions.
The Ambulance Employees Association (AEA) of SA, which was directly targeted by the state government plans has also planned stop work action for Friday.
AEA SA secretary Phil Palmer said the changes were an "absolute betrayal" of ambulance workers and the service they did for the community.
"We did an agreement with the government three years ago, signed by me and by government representatives that gave us extra long service leave and now we've got legislation taking it off us," he said.
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