Business SA has slammed a new deal to give "excess" public servants 12 months to find work in another agency The state's major business group has condemned a new "departure lounge" deal which would give "surplus" public servants a 12-month window to find alternative work before they are forced out. THE state's major business group has condemned a new "departure lounge" deal which would give "surplus" public servants a 12-month window to find alternative work before they are forced out. About 35,000 public servants are affected by the new enterprise agreement proposal, which has also divided the Public Service Association and a group of smaller unions. While the State Government's "no forced redundancy policy" has been scrapped, it has instead offered a redeployment, retraining and redundancy program. Employees deemed "excess to requirements" will be offered a separation package, or a 12-month window to find alternative work in another agency. Business SA director of policy Rick Cairney said that was too long. "If the barrier to removing life tenure was government policy then they should just change policy and not need to go down this path," he said. Efforts should be made to redeploy people but a decision on that could surely be made more quickly - we can't have people waiting in departure lounges for 12 months. If someone in the private sector had to make half a dozen people redundant they couldn't hold onto them for that long. As a small business, it just wouldn't be financially viable - it could end up sending a business broke. While the PSA has endorsed the deal, a group of smaller unions - including Professionals Australia and the Health Services Union - is urging their members to vote it down. Professionals Australia state director Sarah Andrews said it would take more than 12 months to retrain highly skilled engineers, scientists and IT workers. "When someone chooses to work in public sector, they give up receiving a bigger salary in the private sector, but in return get job security," she said. The Government needs to stop whacking public sector workers and the community and find a better, safer way to meet its budget commitments. I don't believe it is out of our hands. You can change the position of government if you have a loud enough voice - the PSA has chosen to be quiet about the issue but we haven't. PSA chief industrial officer Peter Christopher said the proposed agreement could not change government policy. "What is causing some confusion at the moment is that Professionals Australia is mischievously saying if you vote "yes" to the proposal then you're voting "yes" to removing tenure," he said. The proposed enterprise agreement cannot change Government policy, however, the PSA has used negotiations to fight for significant industrial protections. Mr Christopher said that with less than 200 excess employees in the public service, it was unlikely any would be forcibly made redundant under the new agreement. "It will be virtually impossible for the Government to establish genuine redundancies as long as it employs a significant number of contractors and temporary staff," he said. Ms Andrews has refused to withdraw material issued to members despite being requested to by Department of the Premier and Cabinet chief executive Jim Hallion. "The vast majority of members in the public service are members of the PSA - if all they're getting is government information then we don't believe that's clear enough information for them to make a good choice," she said. Our members feel that this important enough to make a stand. They are not going to lay down without a fight. Mr Cairney feared the new agreement would act counter to the State Government's commitment to cut public servant numbers. "We still say the public sector is too big - there have been commitments from the State Government in the last couple of years to reduce and reduce but this hasn't happened," he said. We're not talking about frontline services, we're not talking about police, nurses or teachers - we're talking about bureaucrats. We're relying on borrowing to pay for public sector wages - businesses don't survive if they have to borrow to pay wages. Public Sector Minister Susan Close said the new agreement was an important step towards reducing the number of excess employees, which had fallen by 15 per cent last financial year. "It is surprising that rather than support reform to improve the quality of the public service, Business SA remains fixated simply on the number of public servants," she said. Rather than summarily dismiss public servants to meet an arbitrary target, these reforms will allow the Government to better manage employees declared excess. Public servants have until November 12 to vote on the enterprise agreement proposal. Originally published as Public service "departure lounge" deal panned