A 24-hour statewide strike of 30,000 workers on Wednesday would continue unless the government reviews its payroll, said Public Service Association Secretary General Stewart Little.
“This offer is pure politics: moving half a percent and playing silly games with one-time bonuses for certain workers. It’s a brazen attempt to divide workers from each other,” Little said.
“Inflation is above 5 per cent. If frontline workers take 3 per cent, the best they could expect with Mr Perrottet’s offer would still be going back thousands of dollars a year.”
Little said health workers deserve a pay raise, but so did prison staff, child protection staff and employees of the State Emergency Service and the Rural Fire Service.
NSW Federation of Teachers President Angelo Gavrielatos said the reform adds “insult to injury”.
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“The government is trying to impose a real pay cut on teachers, and what has been announced will do nothing to address the teacher shortage that is affecting teachers and students,” he said.
He said teachers did not bother the health care workers to pay the $ 3,000 thank-you payment, but said the gesture “had not been missed by any teachers.”
NSW Union Secretary Mark Morey said Monday’s announcement was a “short-term solution to a long-term economic crisis” that would halt the momentum of wage growth in the private sector.
“Dominic Perrottet is the first living memory prime minister to have consciously and deliberately reduced the salaries of public sector workers. When you bake with a pay cut like this, it’s not just for a year, “he said.
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NSW Labor leader Chris Minns described raising the wage cap as “better than nothing”, but said workers deserved more. He has promised to raise the limit if he is elected in March 2023.
“We still believe that the current system of bargaining between public sector workers and the NSW government is fundamentally broken,” he said.
The model of the emeritus economist for industrial relations, Professor Emeritus David Peetz, showed that the change in the salary cap from 2.5 to 3% for the period 2022-23 is worth about $ 380 a year for a nurse or midwife. registered fourth year.
For an average public sector employee it amounts to about $ 450, Peetz’s analysis shows.
“The higher 3% limit would mean that instead of the nurse losing about $ 1,375 in 2022-23, she would only lose $ 995. For the average public sector employee, the loss seems to be about $ 1,627. at $ 1,175, ”Peetz said.
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