Union says potential AgVic staff losses won't be known until after the budget

The state budget comes down on May 23, amidst speculation that there'll be massive job cuts across the entire public service.

The Community and Public Sector Union said government departments, including Agriculture Victoria, had been told to cut staffing levels by 10 per cent.

A CPSU spokesman said the Department of Treasury and Finance had written to department heads asking were savings could be found.

But the government wouldn't disclose how that was to happen, apart from saying it was "scoping and seeking suggestions."

There was a 20 per cent vacancy rate across the public sector, and the CPSU was concerned departments would advise the government savings could be achieved by not filling those positions.

"This will decimate services and put enormous pressure on the existing staff," he said.

The spokesman said the union had asked for figures on current vacancies within Agriculture Victoria, but the department was not forthcoming in providing any information.

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CPSU federal secretary Karen Batt said it was reprehensible that there was no information from government employers on how savings would be managed.

"The vacuum this has created, while pre-budget leaks abound, is killing morale, across the public service," Ms Batt said.

"Our phones and emails are running hot and the workforce is becoming frustrated that it's being handled so poorly - it should not be the Labor way, they say."

Budget papers show public sector wages would reach $37 billion, this financial year, and hit more than $40 billion in another three years.

The state's net debt could reach $165.9 billion by mid-2026.

Ms Batt said ministers were using the same Liberal Party language of 12 years ago, like "the frontline won't be affected.

"It insults people's intelligence to play this frontline versus others game, as if there's some second class job that can be cut because it's in a supporting role to others, that directly deliver the service," she said.

"It means the government will exempt every politically sensitive area, but they'll impose the cut in the support roles, which wipes out the service delivery anyway as more so-called front liners spend more time doing those support roles out back."

Assistant Treasurer Danny Pearson has previously denied the government had decided to cut jobs.

"We've not made any decision in terms of those issues," he said.

"But we've given the commitment that we're going to honour each of our election commitments and we've given a commitment that we will have a operating surplus at the end of forward estimates."