NSW Premier freezes public sector pay for 12 months
NSW public servants will be forced to forgo a 2.5 per cent pay rise for 12 months after the Berejiklian government unveiled its plan to freeze wages for more than 400,000 employees.
However, the government will face a significant challenge implementing the pay freeze, with Labor and key crossbenchers vowing they will attempt to block it in the NSW upper house.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the policy on Wednesday as one which would save the government $3 billion, and was necessary to keep "all of our employees in jobs".
"Today's decision isn't taken lightly," she said.
"Whilst we are recovering from the health consequences of the pandemic we have yet to come to terms with the economic shock. Job security is essential on our path to recovery."
The Premier said the policy would include a guarantee of no forced redundancies for all public sector employees who are not senior executives.
The government will move to implement the pay freeze via regulation. However, regulations can be overturned by a majority vote of MPs in the NSW Legislative Council, where the government holds a minority of seats.
A majority coalition of Labor, the Greens, the Animal Justice Party, and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers have confirmed they will support a disallowance motion to overturn the pay freeze when Parliament returns.
Labor leader Jodi McKay said the opposition would fight the government "every step of the way", calling the policy a "pay cut" and "a kick in the guts and a slap in the face" for public servants.
"We will do everything we can in the upper house of the Parliament to ensure this does not happen," she said.
Greens MLC David Shoebridge said a public servant on $80,000 would lose $2000 as a result of the pay freeze.
"That is not the way you thank public sector workers for keeping us safe and keeping us going during the pandemic," Mr Shoebridge said.
The policy also places the government on a war footing with public sector unions, including the nurses' and teachers' unions which have foreshadowed their willingness for industrial action.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a one-year freeze on public service pay rises on Wednesday.Credit: Nick Moir
Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said unions would immediately begin an "intense lobbying campaign" to convince the upper house crossbench to disallow the regulation.
"We don't think this [pay freeze] is right. These are people who have gone above and beyond during the fires and the pandemic and now the government is saying you don't deserve a pay rise," he said.
"As it sinks in, people are going to get pretty angry. I wouldn't take anything off the table at this point."
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet appealed to Labor and the crossbench to support the measure.
In comments directed at the Labor Party, he said: "Today you aren't just elected to represent the unions, you're elected to represent the people of NSW."
"We don’t come to this decision lightly. This is not about the budget. This is not about savings. This is about creating jobs right across the state."
Mr Perrottet said the freeze would apply to new pay agreements as they arise, and confirmed the government would not attempt to unwind existing agreements.
Ms Berejiklian said the $3 billion saved by freezing wages would be spent "on health and jobs".
"They are our priorities, keeping the community safe and keeping people in a job or helping people get a job," the Premier said.
Ms Berejiklian said the reason the state has been able to address the pandemic so far was due to the billions of dollars put into the health system in response.
"I'm proud of the fact we started testing and contact tracing pretty much from Australia Day," she said.
According to ABS unemployment data, 221,000 NSW residents lost their job last month.
with Mary Ward