Electrical Trades Union puts Gunner government on notice over ‘arrogant’ wages policy

A UNION has warned the Gunner government is ‘in its sights’ for announcing a four-year public service pay freeze that has ‘kicked frontline workers in the guts’.

A UNION has warned the Gunner government is “in its sights” for announcing a four-year public service pay freeze that has “kicked frontline workers in the guts”.

The Electrical Trades Union, whose public service members in the NT are mainly in Power and Water Corp and Territory Generation, slammed the budget repair policy as “betraying the workers who have kept the NT safe and functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic”.

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ETU state secretary Peter Ong says the union’s members are ‘livid’ over the four-year public service pay freeze part of the NT Budget. Picture: iStock

Chief Minister Michael Gunner refused to back down from the policy, arguing public servants could swallow a pay freeze or prepare to potentially lose their jobs.

Mr Gunner, as he began selling his first budget as Treasurer at Beaver Brewery in Coconut Grove, signalled he wouldn’t stretch the wage freeze past four years as the world and the economy would be “in a different place”.

“This is a policy that makes sure I save jobs,” he said.

“This is not a policy designed to make union leaders happy.”

ETU state secretary Peter Ong said the union’s members were “livid”.

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“They have endured incompetent management, they have seen millions of dollars wasted in perpetual failed projects which do nothing except fill the pockets of consultants, they’ve seen more executive contracts awarded while we struggle to get apprentices on and now the government announces a four-year wage freeze … it is an act of arrogance and a betrayal of trust,” he said.