Public service executives could face sack for pay freeze refusal
CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has refused to rule out sacking public servants if they fail to sign up to a ‘voluntary’ pay freeze for the next three years
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CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has refused to rule out sacking public servants if they fail to sign up to a “voluntary” pay freeze for the next three years.
Most public servants on executive contracts have already negotiated new agreements, locking in annual pay rises, beginning with a 2.5 per cent increase this August.
But department CEOs emailed these employees late last week, asking them to sign a document that would see them voluntarily forego their negotiated pay increases for the next three years.
“The NTG is now requesting that all executive employees who were issued their existing contract prior to April 23 2019 agree to vary their current contract provisions by continuing to receive their current package rate for the next three years,” one of the emails said.
It included an attached form the public servants have been asked to sign, removing a clause that guarantees annual pay rises and replaces it with a clause saying pay and conditions will be frozen.
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Asked what would happen to public servants who refuse to sign the form, Mr Gunner said: “Everybody will be taking the pay freeze.”
Asked again what would happen to those who don’t sign he said: “Well then, they’ll have a separate conversation.”
Asked if that meant they could lose their jobs, Mr Gunner said: “Everybody will have the pay freeze.”
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Mr Gunner said the forms public servant were being asked to sign were a “variation of the contract” and agreed the government didn’t consider this variation to be voluntary.
“This is our position of budget repair,” he said. “A pay freeze for all executive staff.”
Among more than 600 public servants being asked to sign up to the pay freeze are almost 90 school principals.
The Australian Education Union said it wasn’t consulted before the letters were sent last week.
“We’ve advised them not to sign the variation, our understanding at this stage is that those contracts cannot be amended without their agreement and that they should hold firm as I understand it,” AEU NT branch secretary Jarvis Ryan said.
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“As of today there are about 87 principals who are affected.
None of them have returned the variation and we are going to seek further advice to ensure that they won’t be unfairly penalised because this government has decided they need to be the scapegoats of budget repair.”
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The Government announced in April it would freeze the pay of politicians and senior public servants — those on executive contracts worth at least $217,000 per year — as part of its budget repair measures.
It also announced it would sack 10 per cent of those public servants on these contracts.
The Government expects the measures to save about $25 million.
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