Backflip on 2.5% pay rise for Queensland’s 224,000 public servants due to ‘hard times’

Union heads are meeting with the State Government after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared 224,000 public servants would have planned pay rises frozen.

UNION heads are currently in a meeting with the State Government following the sudden announcement by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk that public servant pay rises would be put on hold.

The Premier this morning backflipped on awarding the state’s 224,000 public servants pay rises of 2.5 per cent, plus one-off cash bonuses of $1250, amid criticism the rises are well above inflation and were taking place at a time that private companies cutting wages or standing down workers.

Ms Palaszczuk said, “It is all on hold” from today.

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The public servants being given 3% pay rise

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says freezing pay rises for public servants was the sensible decision. Picture: Darren England

This means it will not affect the 107,000 public servants who have already received the sign-on $1250 bonus.

“I recognise and the Government recognises, the people of Queensland recognise, that 10s of thousands of people, millions of people across Australia have lost their job,” the Premier said.

“These are extraordinary times, and I think everybody would understand this measure that I have announced today.”

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace and Treasurer Jackie Trad had a two-hour meeting with unions earlier today.

Queensland Teachers’ Union President Kevin Bates said the unions had not been provided with economic modeling as to how the freeze would actually help the economy.

“You can’t make these changes unilaterally,” he said.

“There are binding certified agreements.”

State school teachers and principals are about nine months into their new EBA, with a 2.5 per cent increase scheduled to take affect from July 1 this year.

Another was scheduled for July 2021.

Mr Bates said many had anticipated the freeze might happen.

“We want to see some economic modeling around it, we’d need to see what are the costs and what are the benefits,” he said.

“We would need to consult with our members about this.”

The Courier-Mail has also revealed thousands of Queensland’s public sector energy workers had secured pay rises of three per cent.

Ms Palaszczuk was questioned over the timing of the pay rises on the Today Show this morning.

“Let me make it very clear, all of that (pay rises) is on hold,” she said.

“We’ve got people out there who have lost their jobs, they’re hurting.

“We’ve got front line services out there, our nurses, our doctors our firefighters, our police, they’re doing a great job for Queenslanders.

“But in this climate at the moment everything must be put on hold, it’s absolutely sensible, and I’m sure other people are doing the same thing.”

The comments come a day after Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced a two-year freeze on all Brisbane City Council employees’ wages, which led to an angry response from unions.

AWU Queensland Branch Secretary Steve Baker said the Government’s wage freeze had come after “zero consultation and zero discussion” and health workers should be paid what they were owed.

He said the decision would impact workers in hospitals across the state who were putting their own safety at risk at the forefront of a global pandemic.

“We hear a lot from this Government about how much they supposedly value frontline

healthcare workers, but apparently that doesn’t extend to recognising their hard work by paying them what they’re owed,” he said.

Mr Baker said most public servants had already received a $1250 bonus but AWU members at Queensland Health had not.

“We’d hate to see the Government use this pandemic as an opportunity to get out of paying

Queensland health workers what they’re owed,” he said.

“We’re very aware that this isn’t business as usual, but to force our frontline health care workers to be the ones to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 response is incredibly disappointing.”