PSA News – 25 June 2014

2014 Salaries case

On 24 June, the Industrial Relations Commission decided, with agreement between the PSA, other public sector unions and the Government, to order an increase of 2.27% to the Public Sector Salaries and related awards effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2014.

The outstanding issue of whether the Commission is required to insert a “no extra claims” clause in the awards will now be dealt with separately on 8 July 2014.

The outcome of this matter will not affect members receiving the pay rise that has now been awarded.

Government secretly changes wages policy Regulation

On 23 June, the PSA and Unions NSW were advised by NSW Industrial Relations that the Government had used a Budget Bill to quietly amend the Wages Policy Regulation to reflect the recent decision of the Court of Appeal.

That ruling upheld the Government’s position that the 2.5% wage cap should be reduced by any rise in superannuation.

The Bill went through the Legislative Council on 19 June unopposed as budget bills cannot be blocked by the Legislative Council.

This underhanded tactic by the Government has meant that it has been able to push through a change to its wages policy that had previously been blocked twice in the Legislative Council.

It is another example of the Government using legislation to override wins by the PSA and other public sector unions in the courts.

It also makes any High Court challenge by public sector unions of the Court of Appeal decision pointless.

The new amended Regulation also nullifies our win in the Court of Appeal regarding excess employees and redundancy that arose from the redundancy case for School Administrative and Support Staff.

The Bill can be found HERE. The relevant sections are contained at Schedule 5 on page 27.

Clearly, the only way to get rid of this Government’s policies is to ensure that the Government itself is dumped at the next election.