The NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) has rejected a proposal from the Public Service union to lock in pay increases of 2.5 per cent for NSW PS staff each year for the next three years.
The Commission instead awarded a reduced one-year pay increase of 0.3 per cent this year for around 170,000 public sector employees.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said that for the past nine years public servants in NSW had received the maximum pay rise of 2.5 per cent.
“The Government’s submissions in response to the unions’ pay claims relied on evidence showing that the maximum economic benefit for NSW would be achieved by investing funds directly into the economy, rather that increasing wages,” Mr Perrottet said.
He said Public Servants would receive the 0.3 per cent pay increase, and a wage pause would continue to apply for all Ministers, Members of Parliament, staffers, PS senior executives and the judiciary.
General Secretary of the Public Service Association of NSW (PSA), Stewart Little said the IRC decided that the pay increase would be backdated to the first pay period on or after 1 July 2020.
Mr Little said the Commission’s decision was disappointing and the PSA had strongly argued that public sector workers deserved the full 2.5 per cent pay increase in recognition of their work to keep the State safe and in order to stimulate broader economic recovery.
