Strikes loom as enterprise agreements for frontline public servants come up for negotiation
FRONTLINE public servants including police and teachers will seek to strike new pay deals this year, as the State Government warns wage increases must be “responsible and sustainable”.
FRONTLINE public servants including police, teachers, nurses and ambulance officers will all seek new pay deals in the coming year amid State Government warnings that increases must be “responsible and sustainable” while also delivering new “efficiency”.
Fine print in State Budget documents shows a slew of enterprise bargaining agreements will come up for renegotiation this financial year, against the backdrop of prison guard protests at outsourcing plans and the Public Service Association’s pledge of a lengthy campaign.
Many of the workers set to strike new pay deals are at the frontline of service delivery.
Treasurer Rob Lucas has broken with recent practice and not included an explicit public sector wage cap target in the Budget.
However, he told The Advertiser his books assumed realistic outcomes, which were on average higher than the 1.5 per cent Labor set in its final Budget.
“I think it's foolish to lock yourself into an unrealistic number which, as practice showed with the Labor Party, was unable to be achieved,” he said.
“They didn’t get within a bull’s roar.
“We have got what we think is a reasonable number in our forward estimates. That will be the position that we adopt during the enterprise bargaining arrangements.”
Mr Lucas said: “There won’t be one (wage increase) number for every group”.
“As we settle some of those deals over the next 12 months, it will become quite apparent what our position is, because we will obviously have to put the number there.”
“If there are numbers being requested which are significantly above what is a reasonable target, well then there’ll have to be additional productivity offsets to do that.”
Opposition treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan said unions will be “wary of dealing” with Mr Lucas, fearing he will be looking to “outsource more public sector work”.
“Mr Lucas is having to count on paying a premium after his breach of faith to workers,” he said.
Last year, pay deals were concluded with groups including firefighters and salaried medics.
The full range of deals to be negotiated in the coming year is school and preschool staff, visiting medical specialists and clinical academics, ambulance officers, SA Police, tradies, infrastructure and maintenance rail employees, nurses and midwives and MPs’ assistants.
Australian Education Union SA President Howard Spreadbury said discussions were underway about a deal for school and preschool staff, which was about more than just wages.
“The issue for us is the unknown at the moment,” he said.
“We have not yet traversed the area of salaries. We have spent most of our time talking about out members’ conditions.
“We want to maintain what we achieved in the last enterprise agreement, which was additional resources to support students with additional needs to support the work of teachers.
“We are seeking improvements to country incentives provisions, to make sure that we not only attract teachers and people into leadership in country locations but we retain them as well.”
Police Association of SA President Mark Carroll said he had met with Mr Lucas on a new deal, to replace a current agreement which did not expire until next year. Mr Carroll has insisted that no existing entitlements be “sold off” in upcoming negotiations.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation SA secretary Elizabeth Dabars said early preparation was underway for formal negotiations expected to begin next year.