Victorian public servants’ set for yet another bonanza payday

Victoria’s 54,000 public servants will be handed another handsome bonus, in a move set to cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

Victoria’s 54,000 public servants are set to pocket up to $3000 extra pay into their bank accounts this week – in a move set to cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

The one-off annual payment follows a $5600 cost of living bonus they received earlier this year and comes ahead of shift workers in the public service who are set to gain a $1000 cash bonus from next month.

Public servants will each get between $709 and $3108 – based on their pay grade – as part of a special windfall in their new pay deal to compensate them for being moved from one department to another in times of crisis.

Public servants will each get between $709 and $3108 – based on their pay grade – as part of a special windfall.

The opposition and small business representatives have called for the payment to be scrapped.

The deal, known as a mobility payment, was first put into an agreement signed in 2020 – during the state’s bushfire crisis and ahead of the Covid pandemic – and was continued each year before it was rolled into the latest pay deal, which also saw the state’s bureaucrats secure a three per cent annual wage increase.

The extra cash into the bank accounts of bureaucrats comes after the Herald Sun last month revealed they were also in line to receive a one-off $5600 cost-of-living payments, which will also be paid to workers who take home up to $240,000 a year.

It comes as the state’s debt hurtles towards an eye-watering $187.8bn by 2027-28.

According to the Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024, the “work required of a modern career public service is not static but always changing” due to government priorities, population growth, changing community expectations and crises.

Government bureaucrats are also in line to receive a one-off $5600 cost-of-living payment.

“Embracing these changing priorities is essential to providing secure, flexible employment in the public service,” the document states.

But opposition finance spokeswoman Jess Wilson said the money would be better spent elsewhere.

“The time for Covid-related salary top-ups has well and truly passed and this payment should not occur,” she said.

“Instead of spending millions in unnecessary payments for public servants, the Allan Labor government should be cutting taxes, ending the Big Build blowouts and rorts and reining out their record debt.

“Labor cannot manage money, and Victorians are paying the price.”

Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang said many Victorian traders faced ongoing financial stress caused by government failings during the pandemic.

“They vividly recall the pay rises granted to politicians and public servants year on year. To hear that … this allowance is continuing only begs the question – who is our government and its employees really serving?”

Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang says many Victorian traders face ongoing financial stress because of government failings.

But a Community and Public Sector Union spokesman defended the payments and said it is vitally important for a surge workforce to be available to respond quickly to crises.

“The mobility principles underpinning this allowance which applies to a majority of women in female dominated occupations reinforce this,” he said.

“Cheap shots to play politics targeting workers is seen as that and will not be forgotten.

“Those in the opposition complaining about cost are two faced and should either hand their recently bestowed pay rises back or support their workforce.”

A Victorian Government spokesperson said: “Salaries and wages, including the mobility payment, are funded through existing department funding allocations - no additional funding was required.

“The mobility payment has nothing to do with Covid — it supports public servants to be redeployed to where they are required.”