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Bureau Of Meteorology Union Staff Stop Work After Pay Dispute

Vital services like weather warnings will continue but your local BOM Twitter feed will stop.
The forecast said it would be sunny!
Getty Images
The forecast said it would be sunny!

The weather stops for no man or woman, but staff manning the Bureau of Meteorology will down tools for a fortnight after failed pay negotiations, with a 24-hour full strike on the horizon.

Staff belonging to the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) will not answer phones, write departmental Tweets or respond to non-severe weather inquiries for a fortnight with a full strike planned on September 9 across multiple public service departments including the Australia Tax Office, defense, the Department of Human Services including Medicare and more.

CPSU deputy secretary Beth Vincent-Pietsch told The Huffington Post Australia the work stoppages wouldn't impact on vital services.

"Our members don't want to put anyone in danger and actions like this always come with caveats to do with severe weather or national security," Vincent-Pietsch said.

"There will be internal pressures but we don't anticipate services will stop."

If you get your weather alerts on Twitter, you may want to check the website.
Betsie Van Der Meer
If you get your weather alerts on Twitter, you may want to check the website.

Bureau people management branch assistant director Chris Stocks confirmed most services would run as usual.

"The Bureau's highest priority is to continue to deliver timely forecasts and warnings," Stocks said in a statement.

"The Bureau has well-established contingencies in place to ensure services provided by the Bureau will continue to be delivered for the safety and security of the Australian public. This includes the issuing of forecasts and warnings, which we expect to fully deliver during the industrial action."

Vincent-Pietsch said the work stoppages were part of a three-year negotiation for rights.

"Our members told us overwhelmingly that they want to keep everything they've got -- to roll over their agreements with a fair pay rise somewhere in the vicinity of 2.5 percent.

"The government's bargaining policy is looking to strip rights in their agreements."

Stocks said the bureau management bargaining team was working on a revised draft of a new Enterprise Agreement.

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