WA Premier Mark McGowan insists the government's planned 3000 public sector job cuts will involve voluntary redundancies and has criticised unions for plans to take strike action on the first day of the school year.
Mr McGowan said the government's plan was for all of the job cuts to be voluntary, excluding "special defined circumstances" involving public servants who were not performing.
CPSU/CSA delegates voted last week to take industrial action on February 1 after the state government failed to address concerns about voluntary redundancies and $41 million in education cuts.
More than 100 education staff finished work last Friday under the "voluntary targeted separation scheme", but hundreds more will have to go to meet the massive education department's share of the 3000 jobs.
However, unions have warned they don't believe government assurances that the 3000 job cuts target for the public sector will almost exclusively involve voluntary redundancies.
Mr McGowan said unions should respect the government's voluntary job cuts scheme and the fact that the government was trying to repair the worst deficit and debt of any Australian state that it had inherited when elected.
"If people want to take up the scheme it is their own individual choice and I think the union should respect the individual choice of the people involved if they wish to take up that offer," he told reporters.
"I urge unions to get on board and understand that public servants like that system."
CPSU/CSA secretary Toni Walkington said last week rolling industrial action would take place at education sites in key electorates.
State School Teachers' Union WA president Pat Byrne called the cuts "savage" and said they would ultimately affect the quality of public school education, although teachers will not strike.
The Liberal Opposition supports voluntary redundancies, although leader Mike Nahan urged people and community groups unhappy with budget cuts to "stand up to this government".
The government recently backflipped on $23 million worth of cuts, including reversing a decision to scrap the School of the Air, following an angry backlash and grassroots campaign to save it.
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