South Australia’s largest cohort of Public Sector employees has voted in favour of a new Enterprise Agreement offer, locking in pay rises of 1.5 per cent per annum over the next three years.
Announcing the offer, Treasurer Rob Lucas said a ballot of over 40,000 eligible Public Sector salaried employees resulted in 84 per cent of employees returning a ballot voting in favour of the Agreement.
Mr Lucas said the South Australian Public Sector Enterprise Agreement: Salaried 2021 provided for four pay rises of 1.5 per cent (August 2021, August 2022, August 2023 and August 2024).
He said there was also a $1,000 one-off payment (pro-rata for part-time employees) for employees employed at the date of approval of the agreement in the South Australian Employment Tribunal (SAET), which was in recognition of the fact that these employees had not had a pay rise in two years.
In a statement, the South Australian Public Service Association (PSA) said the result was a win for all PSA members after standing firm for a prolonged period of time to ensure that job security was protected and all conditions were maintained.
“The next step in the process will be obtaining approval for the new agreement in the SAET,” the PSA said.
“Upon approval in the SAET, the agreement will come into force and the $1,000 payment, pay increase and the back pay will begin to be processed by your employer.”
The PSA said that under the Agreement, key job protection provisions remained and existing conditions of employment had been retained, including no changes to the consultation and grievance and dispute resolution processes.
“Protections from unreasonable workloads will also remain under the terms of the offer,” it said.
