The Community and Public Sector Union has attacked a Howard government "spin" that suggests Centrelink call centre staff numbers are increasing, despite the loss of 600 jobs in the past nine months.
This latest round of staff cuts is on top of a 5000 job cut announced by the government in 1998.
The union, which represents the vast majority of the 22,000 Centrelink staff, is infuriated by the Minister for Community Services, Larry Anthony's recent announcement of 360 additional staff for national call centres.
"He was hailing that as some sort victory for welfare recipients and Centrelink staff," CPSU Community Services Section secretary, Mark Gepp told ZDNet.
"But this has to be seen in context to the 5600 cuts in the last three years."
"What the Minister didn't talk about was the fact that 85 percent of people who physically ring the call centre get an engaged signal," Gepp added.
Seventy percent of the 600 staff shrinkage has affected regional call centres, with Geelong losing 132 positions and the Townsville call centre headcount decreasing by 72 since June last year, according to CPSU figures.
"Services to people in those communities are being savaged," Gepp said.
"These are some of the country's most needy customers and they're basically being denied these services."
Some Centrelink call centre staff are now expected to work 12-hour shifts, according to the CPSU.
Although the union has an enterprise agreement in place that ensures workers are paid for overtime hours, "it'll only be so long before workers can't cope with these hours," according to Gepp.
"Spreading them more thinly across a wider band of hours is not the fix that is needed."
The CPSU hopes to convince the federal government to reverse staff cuts and find additional funding in the federal budget in May, through a lobbying campaign aimed at local MPs.
The union is calling membership meetings next week at over 400 Centrelink workplaces to endorse the campaign.
"Our members are taking this issue directly to the community and local politicians...it's vital that the government reverses the cuts to Centrelink staffing," Gepp said.
Larry Anthony's office did not return calls by press time.
