NT wage freeze bonus: Nurses, teachers union on how their members will vote

Two frontline workers’ unions have indicated whether or not they’ll take a salary bonus linked to a four-year wages freeze.

UNIONS representing two of the Territory’s key frontline workforces have cast doubt on the Government’s chance of imposing a four-year wages freeze linked to a $4000 salary bonus.

The Territory’s teachers’ union has already twice knocked back the Government’s EBA offer and nurses and midwives start negotiatiations in the next few months, when their current enterprise agreement expires in August – but the mood at the moment appears anti-wages freeze.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation secretary Cath Hatcher said while too early to predict which way her members would vote, it would be a surprise were they to support a four-year wages freeze.

“There’s nothing on the table for nurses and midwives yet,” she said. “We expect we won’t vote until August.

“We’re anticipating we’ll get the same offer as the general public service including the $4000. At the moment members are saying ‘no’, they would disagree with that but we’d need to go to a members vote when the offer’s made.”

Australian Education Union branch president Jarvis Ryan said the Government knows it has a fight on its hands.

“Our current agreement expired last October and the union executive rejected the initial $1000 annual payment over four years with a wage freeze,” he said.

“When the $4000 bonus offer was made we advised the Commission (for Public Employment) we’d recommend rejection of that too and Government delayed the offer until this year, probably late February.”

He said while $4000 may have been attractive to some general public servants on lower incomes, there would be broader implications around accepting a wage freeze including reduced superannuation contributions.

He said such a measure could have a devastating impact on the Territory’s capacity to attract interstate teachers to work in our schools.

“We’re already seeing significant staffing pressures for our schools.

Mr Ryan said the AEU will consider a protective action ballot which could include work bans, bans on NAPLAN testing or stopwork action. Territory teachers last took strike action in 2014.

Frontline workers miss out on wage freeze bonus

THOUSANDS of Territory public servants will wake today with an extra $4000 in their bank accounts – and thousands of frontline workers will not.

These include nurses, doctors, firefighters, teachers, police and corrections officers.

The disparity follows the resolution late last year of the general public service wage dispute, which ended when the NT government increased its offer of a cash bonus in exchange for a four-year wages freeze from $1000 to $4000 and $2000 in the three subsequent years.

But the union representing firefighters and corrections officers has warned there is no way its members will cop a lump sum in favour of a pay rise (they rejected the offer last year) and both have lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission for a protect action against the government.

If approved, this could mean corrections officers walk off the job mid-shift and firefighters campaigning against the government via social media and other forms.

Public servants employed by Power Water and Jacana Energy have already twice rejected the government’s wage freeze.

Officials from other unions not covered by the general public service agreement have also indicated they won’t sign anything that doesn’t include annual salary percentage increases. United Workers Union branch secretary Erina Early said the government should not assume other agreements will be negotiated like the general agreement.

“The general enterprise agreement was the government’s big one because they have most of the workers employed under that agreement. Other agreements are smaller but a lot of them are highly unionised; firefighters Power Water, Jacana, teachers, nurses and doctors,” Ms Early said.

“These are highly unionised and while they are smaller amounts to the general public service they’re going to cause government the biggest problems.”

Doctors joined firefighters, corrections workers, Power Water and Jacana Energy employees in rejecting the wage offer last year. Other sectors that will begin negotiations this year include Aboriginal health practitioners, nurses, dentists, police and Territory Generation.

Ms Early warned the government that 2022 is “the year of protected action”.

“The workers aren’t going to take it. The firefighters and corrections; there is no way they are going to accept a four-year wage freeze. They’re both under resourced and understaffed.” A spokeswoman for the NT government said it would pursue the wages freeze with non-general public servants.

Retailers plead for public servants to spend their bonus here

DARWIN public servants get their $4000 wage freeze bonus on Thursday – and local shop-owners are hoping for a slice of the action.

About 13,300 public servants will get the bonus, which is a whopping $53m injection into the Territory economy.

The fiscal sugar hit can’t come quick enough for Darwin retailers, who are battling the devastating impacts of Covid restrictions, indoor mask mandates, staff issues and shopper hesitancy.

Darwin City Retailers Association last week conducted a survey of CBD shops which shone a light on Covid’s impact.

The survey, conducted among DCRA members and non-members, shows 55 per cent of city retailers are reporting a devastating impact, with trade down more than 50 per cent against the same time last year.

Anna Savvas owner of The Bookshop Darwin in the CBD hopes Territory public servants will spend their $4000 bonus locally. Picture: Julianne Osborne

Employers are under pressure with 48 per cent of city retailers currently affected by Covid-related staff shortages and a 47 per cent drop in available retail staff due to isolation or close contact.

Seventy one per cent of city retailers are trading reduced hours and 34 per cent of businesses have reduced trading hours on average. Fifty five per cent anticipate a projected drop in revenue of 30 per cent or more next quarter.

Anna Savvas, who owns The Bookshop in Smith Street Mall, called for a return to the spirit of early 2020 – when the virus broke free – and community rallied behind local retailers.

“There was a really concerted push to buy local buy local everywhere. This time it doesn’t seem messaging is out there,” she said.

“Retailers too can think of different ways to support their community like ‘click-and-collect and drive-by service orders.”

DCRA general manager Andrea Wicking said spending the $4000 locally “keeps the economy buzzing”.

“Popping into a boutique and purchasing clothing keeps a staff member employed who pays rent or a mortgage, buys groceries or dines out,” she said. “Most of the money earned in the Territory can stay here.”