‘We smashed the wage freeze’: Two year controversial public sector wage policy has ended

The Territory Government has offered Territory public servants a pay rise to call an end to the wage war. See the pay increase here.

Unions have lauded the government’s wage freeze backflip as a win for workers, but warned the 2 per cent increase is just a starting point.

Unions NT representatives are celebrating a win they deem as small but a step forward in public servants negotiations for “real wages”.

A 2 per cent compounding pay increase will be used as a base for negotiations with public servants, ending the previous lump sum payment approach.

The announcement comes after months of persistent strikes, rallies and protests from public sector workers across the Territory.

Unions NT members are reaping the rewards of what they believe is a result of their dogged protesting.

However, the Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the change in policy was based on increased cost of living factors.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles announced public servants will be offered a compounding pay rise, ending the Gunner Government wage freeze. Picture: Floss Adams.

“The cost of living in the Northern Territory has increased and it is appropriate for us to change our policy in acknowledgment of that,” Ms Fyles said.

Ms Fyles said she could not give an exact figure of how much it would cost the NT government in the next budget and where the money would come from due to different agreements that were unfinalised.

“We’ve been working through how we will pay for this,” she said.

“We will now negotiate those enterprise bargaining agreements with a compounding percentage increase, at the same time we’ll manage our responsibilities across the budget.”

Territory politicians will not receive a pay rise as part of the new agreement.

Public servants covered by existing lump sum-based agreements will also be offered the compounding percentage pay agreement for future years.

United Workers Union NT branch secretary Erina Early said Wednesday October 5 2022 would be now marked as a “historic day” for the public sector union workers.

Unions NT secretaries Erina Early, Cath Hatcher, Michelle Ayres and Kay Densley celebrate the end of the wage freeze. Picture: Floss Adams.

“Today we smashed the wage freeze,” Ms Early said.

“It’s a bit surreal at the moment, but we’ve still got a long way, 2 per cent … it’s not really something that most of the public sector workers are going to accept.

“But at least we’ve got the opportunity now to actually negotiate for real wages.”

Ms Early said negotiations would continue for a high compounding wage increase for their members instead of the “wage policy they’ve clung onto for dear life for nearly two years”.

Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro said the government’s backflip on the pay freeze was an enormous victory for the CLP and unions.

NT leader of the opposition Lia Finocchiaro spoke outside of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory and called the decision to remove the wage freeze a “humiliating backflip”. Picture: Floss Adams.

“The cruel pay freeze is always something the CLP has vehemently opposed and today’s backflip shows how the power of people can really turn a decision of the government,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

Ms Finocchiaro said the government had not learned its lesson by “dictating” a 2 per cent baseline figure.

However, she refused to commit to a figure herself.

“I will absolutely not commit to a figure, because I have said to public servants to their face that I will sit down in good faith and negotiate,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

“It is still dictating the terms of what’s supposed to be good faith negotiating, the government needs to drop its swords and sit down with the public servants and negotiate in good faith.”