‘We deserve to be treated better’: In a first, staff at Parliament House have walked off work in protest

In what is believed to be a first, staff at Parliament House have walked off work to protest their pay and conditions and their status as the lowest-paid parliamentary workers in Australia.

Further stop work meetings at Parliament House are likely after 80 staff walked off the job Wednesday to protest a lack of progress on their enterprise agreement and what they claim is their status as the nation’s lowest-paid parliamentary staff.

Former Employee Ombudsman Gary Collis is working as advocate for the staff and said those attending the meeting had felt “belittled and insulted’’ by the 10 months of unsuccessful negotiations that led to the stop work.

Staff at SA Parliament House held a stop work meeting today: Pic Michael McGuire

“What we have seen today is a day when the employees of the South Australian parliament have said enough is enough, we deserve to be treated better, we deserve to be paid better,’’ he said.

Mr Collis, now principal at the Australian Employment Alliance, said “more of these meetings and possibly longer stop work meetings will occur’’.

It is believed the stop work meeting, held in the Blue Room, was the first to be held in parliament.

The industrial action involved workers from Joint Parliamentary Services and the Legislative Council disrupted areas including catering, Hansard, library and building services.

Speaker Leon Bignell has responsibility for the staff but parliamentary clerks Rick Crump and Chris Schwartz have been conducting the negotiations since December last year. In August, staff were offered a 4 per cent pay rise, followed by successive increases of 3.5 per cent.

Staff were on Tuesday also offered a one-off $1500 payment and are expected to vote on the offer before the end of the year.

Workers asked for an initial pay rise of 10 per cent followed by 6 per cent and 5 per cent and said research had shown their pay had fallen more than 13 per cent behind CPI since 2020.

But Mr Collis said the bigger issue was that staff wanted an independent review to compare remuneration against other state parliaments. He said the clerks had employed a similar process when they won $100,000 pay rises this year.

“My understanding is that the South Australian Parliament employees are the lowest (paid) in the country,’’ he said.

Staff also asked media in attendance not to name them or publish pictures as they feared “repercussions’’ for speaking out.

Clerks Mr Crump and Mr Schwarz said in a statement there were “confident that the offer is a good offer’’ and also urged any staff who felt they had been intimidated to report that behaviour.

Originally published as ‘We deserve to be treated better’: In a first, staff at Parliament House have walked off work in protest