Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has simply given a modest cost of living adjustment to the public servants who saved his state from a succession of disasters.
In his Budget speech on Tuesday, Mr Perrottet gave public sector workers a 2.5 per cent pay increase – 0.5 per cent of which will go to this year’s promised superannuation rise.
The 2.5 per cent increase is obviously welcome, but it is in the context of rising costs of living and against a backdrop of a miniscule 0.3 per cent pay rise the year before. In addition, the NSW public sector still labours under unfair workplace laws that restrict our ability to bargain and a three per cent efficiency dividend that will cost jobs.
Your union will continue to campaign for fair pay and conditions and we will fight job cuts, particularly in the regions and for women.
It is the public sector that the community turned to in crisis.
It is the public sector that fought the worst bushfires modern NSW has seen.
It is the public sector keeping a lid on the pandemic.
Our members are on the frontline. They did not deserve what in essence was a pay cut last year and deserves more than a modest cost of living increase in 2021.
Mr Perrottet’s Budget announcement also proves that last year’s miserly 0.3 pay rise was not only bad for our members, it was disastrous for the state economy, pulling much-needed spending dollars out of communities during an economic downturn.
The PSA/CPSU NSW welcomes the Treasurer’s announcement for paid leave for premature births, still births and miscarriages. Your union was successful in introducing similar benefits into national employment standards and has long been campaigning for this at a state level.