This regulation caps the wage increase the Industrial Relations Commission (“IRC”) can award public sector workers at 2.5% per annum, regardless of the merits of the case.
Having agreed with the PSA to the 2.5% wage deal, the NSW government then changed its mind. They wanted to limit the wage rise to only 2.25% and then force public servants to pay the Commonwealth government’s 0.25% increase in superannuation out of their own wages. When the PSA challenged this decision the government dug its heels in.
In June the IRC ruled against the government and decided that the superannuation increase was not part of the 2.5% wage cap. The IRC said that the deal the government struck with the PSA meant that public sector workers should get their 2.5% pay increase and their extra 0.25% superannuation.
Appalled that the IRC ruled against them, the O’Farrell government decided to retrospectively change the rules and they issued an amendment to the wage cap regulation that explicitly said that superannuation was part of the 2.5% wage cap. The Greens believe that this was not only bad faith, but also unfair. The 2.5% wage increase was meant to be for paying bills and meeting day to day living expenses, and you can’t pay your groceries with your superannuation.
Not satisfied with just one new regulation capping wages, the O’Farrell government made three in the parliament’s winter break. In addition to cutting public sector wages to 2.25% they also made judges, magistrates and other statutory offices the subject of the 2.5% wage cap and then amended that one to reduce it again by the 0.25% superannuation increase. It was a real mix of messy and unfair.
Which brings us to this week in Parliament. This week Labor tabled three motions in the Upper House to disallow all three regulations (and good on them for doing so). This is what happened:
(i) On Wednesday a combined vote of the Greens, the Labor opposition, the Shooters and Fred Nile disallowed the regulation that tried to cap public servants’ wage increases to 2.25%. We pretty much all agreed that it was wrong for the government to force hundreds of thousands of public servants to pay for the increased superannuation from their own wages.
(ii) Today the same combination disallowed the regulation that tried to cap the wages of judges, magistrates and other statutory offices to 2.25% for the same reasons; and
(iii) Also today the Labor opposition moved to entirely disallow the 2.5% wages cap for judges, magistrates and other statutory offices. However this failed because it was not supported by the Greens (or for that matter the Shooters or Fred Nile). While the Greens agree in principle that this cap is unfair we were not willing to carve out special protections for some of the most highly paid and influential public servants while leaving nurses, clerks, fire fighters and teachers stuck with the cap. This is a question of one-in, all-in. If we are ever going to knock off this appalling policy then making sure that the best paid public servants are subject to the same cap is important.
So it was an interesting week. The government’s wages policy finally got a decent review in the parliament. Over 400,000 public servants got a slightly fairer wage outcome and no longer have to self-fund their superannuation increase. However the fundamental unfairness remains in the O’Farrell policy and the Greens remain absolutely committed to knocking this policy off in a future Parliament.
In the meantime thanks again to all those public servants who care for us when we are sick, keep our trains running, fix our roads, give us our drivers licenses, protect us in emergencies and teach our kids. We are glad to see you get that little bit extra in your pay packet for all the essential work you do.