NSW public servants have been offered a 4.5 per cent pay bump as the first step to resolving the State’s essential worker recruitment and retention crisis.
Announced by Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, the offer comprises a four per cent pay rise and 0.5 percentage point superannuation increase.
Accompanying the wage offer is the establishment of an Industrial Relations Taskforce to be led by former Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission, Anna Booth and former President of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, Roger Boland.
“The Taskforce will bring workers, their unions and Government Agencies together to create a new cooperative interest-based approach overseen by the Industrial Relations Commission,” Mr Mookhey said.
“The wage offer will allow for pay rises for most workers from 1 July 2023, while the taskforce implements a modern industrial relations framework to replace the former Government’s punitive wages cap,” he said.
“Excluding super, the new pay offer is 60 per cent higher than the Coalition’s plan (2.5 per cent to 4 per cent).”
Mr Mookhey said the proposed one-year pay deal would be in place while the Taskforce goes about its work.
He said this work would include a new interest-based bargaining stream to allow frontline workers and their representatives to engage with Government Agencies to identify savings and productivity gains in exchange for pay increases.
The Minister said the Taskforce would also work to ensure the Industrial Relations Commission is independent, properly resourced and with real powers to prevent and settle industrial disputes, and review the scope of the commission to address and resolve work health and safety issues or related workplace matters within the State jurisdiction.
