Members of the NSW Public Service have been offered a three per cent pay increase for 2022-23 amid union calls for strike action.
Announcing the remuneration offer, Premier Dominic Perrottet said the new two-year policy offered a 3.0 per cent increase per annum in 2022-23 and 2023-24, with a possible further 0.5 per cent on offer for 2023-24 “for employees that make a substantial contribution to productivity enhancing reforms.”
“The policy will apply to new industrial agreements that are struck from 1 July 2022,” Mr Perrottet said.
“In addition, a one-off payment of $3,000 will be provided to employees in the NSW Health Service in recognition of their work on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He said the one-off payment would cover paramedics, midwives, cleaners and all other permanent staff employed by the NSW Health Service.
Minister for Employee Relations, Damien Tudehope said the payment to health workers was recognition for a workforce that had “stepped up above and beyond.”
However, the Public Service Association of NSW (PSA) said it believed all Public Sector employees were frontline workers, “who guided our State through bushfires, floods and the pandemic.”
“The Government’s one-off payment for some sectors should be seen for what it is: a divisive move to undermine union-wide demands for a pay increase that will not see wages go backwards for the workers who have done so much for the people of NSW,” the PSA said.
It reminded members that a three per cent pay increase was below the current rate of inflation (5.1 per cent) and said this would mean public service personnel had less money in their pockets.
The union also highlighted that the remuneration offer did not specify whether the three per cent increase included this year’s scheduled superannuation increase.
“If not, the pay increase will be more like 2.5 per cent,” the PSA said.
