HUNDREDS of out-of-work federal Coalition staffers are still waiting for thousands of dollars in entitlements from the Rudd Government, six weeks after Labor seized power by campaigning for the rights of workers. Coalition ministerial staffers and electorate officers were this week told by the Department of Finance they faced further delays to their payouts, including holiday pay and long service leave, because of the number of people involved. A number of Coalition staffers received their payouts this week, but 353 were still to be processed by the Ministerial and Parliamentary Services section of the Department of Finance and Deregulation. The Rudd Government is filling about 365 ministerial staff positions, fulfilling the new Prime Minister’s election pledge to cut the number of staffers by 30 per cent, compared with the last days of the Howard government. Bringing the number of ministerial staff back down to the levels that existed at the start of the Howard government in 1996 is expected to save the taxpayer about $29 million. Read More