Community and Public Sector Union alleges 2000 workers underpaid by NT government

The union representing thousands of Territory public servants in hospitals, prisons and other major departments claims the government has been ripping them off for years.

Community and Public Sector Union NT acting regional secretary David Villegas and Public Employment Minister Paul Kirby.

The union representing thousands of Territory public servants has accused the government of stealing a portion of their wages every week for several years.

The Community and Public Sector Union claims more than 2000 of its members working across key departmental roles, including in hospitals and prisons, are affected by the wage theft.

The CPSU has lodged an official dispute with the NT’s Commissioner of Public Employment, claiming thousands of shift workers were underpaid by an hour and 15 minutes every week for the past three years.

CPSU NT acting regional secretary David Villegas said the shift workers were paid for the equivalent of 36.75 hours per week, while being rostered to work 38 hours.

Mr Villegas said this equated to 60 lost hours every year, meaning a Level 5 admin officer would be $2000 a year out of pocket.

CPSU NT acting regional secretary David Villegas said the shift workers were paid for the equivalent of 36.75 hours per week, while being rostered to work 38 hours.

“This clearly isn’t right, and the Public (Employment) Commissioner must urgently come to the table and work with us to resolve it,” he said.

Mr Villegas said affected workers included those in the Territory’s hospitals, prisons, youth justice centres and other government departments.

However, Public Employment Minister Paul Kirby said an ongoing review into shift work arrangements had found “no substantial underpayments”.

Mr Kirby said the Public Employment Commissioner was undertaking a review of shift work arrangements with the union as part of the work coming out of the general enterprise agreement.

“Any back pay arrangements, along with other options, would depend on the outcome of the review of shift work,” he said.

However, Public Employment Minister Paul Kirby said an ongoing review into shift work arrangements had found “no substantial underpayments”. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

It comes six months after the NT Law Reform Committee released its report into wage theft, which recommended criminalising “deliberate, intentional behaviour” leading to underpayment, the expansion of the local courts for a small claims-style employment division and granting investigative powers to a Wage Theft Inspectorate.

“Deliberate underpayment of an employee’s wages should be included in the offence of stealing in the NT Criminal Code,” it concluded.

The report found that there were often significant barriers to recovering unpaid wages for victims, with many locked in a “David and Goliath contest with large, well-resourced corporate entities”.

“The most pressing issues were the recovery of unpaid wages and the education of workers and employers regarding worker’s entitlements and employer responsibilities,” it found.

It is understood the next round of public service enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations will not start until after the election in 2024.

The CPSU is expected to propose a 3.4 per cent pay increase for impacted workers as well as back pay.

Last year the union forced the government to backflip on its wage freeze offer, securing a 2 per cent bump for all public sector workers.

The latest NT budget said 40 per cent of all government sector spending was on public service employee expenses, with 22,040 full-time equivalent roles as of March.