CSIRO Staff Vote 9:1 for Strike Action - Staff Association President Speaks Out. (March 5, 2011)

According to The Australian's Leigh Dayton: "The Australian Electoral Commission confirmed yesterday that a recent protected action ballot was supported by 91 per cent of the roughly 3000 members of the staff association, most of whom are scientists and technicians with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. The CSIRO has roughly 6000 staff in total." And while Craig Roy, CSIRO deputy chief executive is sanguine saying: "To date, 27 points within the enterprise agreement have been resolved through negotiation. We anticipate that at the meeting on Tuesday further negotiations will proceed in a constructive manner,"  Staff Association secretary Sam Popovski told Ms Dayton: "Industrial action is not something CSIRO staff contemplate lightly but management needs to understand we are very determined to fight off this substandard deal because it threatens to undermine the world-class work of CSIRO."

 Staff Association president Michael Borgas in an interview with the Canberra Times' Rosslyn Beeby was direct in stating his viewpoint referring to the federal government's: "increasing culture of bureaucracy'' as it affects the public sector research agencies. In his words the government has "lost its way on science".

Dr Borgas said: "[Megan Clark, appointed CSIRO chief executive in 2009] has tried to implement changes, but she has to negotiate change within a government department structure that's increasingly dominated by bureaucracy,'' and added, "We are not taking industrial action to demand a change of management personnel, but a change of culture. This is about respecting scientists and listening to their concerns.''

He described to Ms Beeby the 90% vote of Staff Association members for strike action as a reflection of CSIRO executive management's ''failure to address concerns'' about poor consultation with staff, ''an overall disappointment'' with the way federal departments had sidelined science. ''We are seeing a reduction of the role of scientists in policy making. We've got to challenge the creeping departmental bureaucracy that's stifling science. We are seeing confusion at all levels of government about the role of science and scientists, including the role of the chief scientist, the CSIRO and other science agencies. We are seeing the direction and future of science being dictated by departmental structure, not by ability or creativity.''

As a rebuttal Ms Beeby reports that the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, "questioned the comments, saying he doubts their accuracy".