Why unions are furious with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet

A planned increase to public sector pay packets has unions fuming over what they see as an insult to frontline workers.

Union representatives have slammed a public service pay increase and $3000 bonus for healthcare workers announced on Monday.

The increase is much less than Australia’s inflation rate of 5.1 per cent, resulting in effectively a “pay cut”, unions say.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet revealed the upcoming budget would include a pay cap increase for all public sector workers from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent this year and a potential 3.5 per cent the following financial year.

“From the perspective of the peak body for unions in NSW anything below inflation is not good enough because that is a wage cut and we will not tolerate a wage cut,” Unions NSW assistant secretary Thomas Costa said.

The NSW government will also invest $4.5bn over the next four years to hire additional health workers following reports of dangerous staff shortages in some areas.

Public Service Association (PSA) general secretary Stewart Little said the decision to prioritise health workers with the announcement was a “political” one.

NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said pay increases should ‘at the very least’ keep up with inflation. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Seb Haggett

He said it was an insult to other frontline workers who responded to fires, floods and worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic.

“I think that the Premier’s thought that he’d curry favour with the general population by saying he supports health workers – as does everyone here,” Mr Little said.

“Our members here today … have been ignored in today’s announcement. It’s an absolute insult to them and to so many other frontline workers that did the heavy lifting during the pandemic.”

Mr Little said a decision would be made later on whether a planned strike by PSA members for Wednesday, June 8, would go ahead in the wake of the government’s announcement.

Last month, thousands of teachers took part in industrial action to protest significant staff shortages, unmanageable workloads and lack of pay.

NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said Monday’s announcement did nothing to address shortages in the teaching profession and pay disparity with other degree professions.

“Today’s announcement by the Perrottet government adds insult to injury,” he said.

Health and education workers held strikes throughout the start of the year calling for staff shortages and pay rises to be addressed across the public sector. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Mr Gavrielatos said teacher shortages were greatly affecting the quality of education being provided in NSW public schools.

“Hundreds of classes are being disrupted every day because of the teacher shortage. They’re being denied not only their education but their future,” he said.

Mr Costa agreed the changes were a “slap in the face” for many NSW public sector workers.

“Unions NSW completely supports public sector unions in their fight to beat this cap to make sure that workers receive a decent income so we can retain the workers that we need to ensure the delivery of the services that all of us rely on,” he said.

Originally published as Why unions are furious with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet