Police win pay deal while other public sector workers wait

Police officers have reached an in-principle agreement with the Crisafulli government over a new pay deal, winning increases to late-night shift allowances, greater incentives for remote and regional work, and an $8000 retention payment for every general duties officer across Queensland.

The agreement was celebrated by Premier David Crisafulli on Tuesday morning, as negotiations with unions representing other public sector workers appeared further from reach.

Nurses and midwives said the police deal was “outrageous” and raised questions over the LNP’s treatment of a predominantly female frontline workforce. Meanwhile, teachers announced they would stop work for 24 hours next week.

Every general duties officer across Queensland will get an $8000 retention bonus.

“We’ve delivered certainty when it comes to wages, to conditions, and to resources as well,” Crisafulli said of the police deal in a press conference on Tuesday, called to spruik new data on victims of crime.

“We’ve spoken a lot about that: making sure that police have that certainty of the ability to do their job, and also the resources to be able to deal with the youth crime crisis.”

Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior told 4BC’s Mornings program that his members deserved credit for driving crime victim numbers down.

“We can’t fight crime if we’ve got an attrition rate of 5.8 per cent,” he said.

“That is why the focus of the [enterprise bargain] is on the frontline hard work of general duties officers. It needs to be because we’ve got officers leaving at a rate never seen before, especially those younger officers.”

But Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union secretary Sarah Beaman said the deal amounted to a 17 per cent improvement in police wages when taking penalty rates, cost-of-living adjustments and overtime into account.

She said it was impossible to ignore the difference with how the predominantly female nurses and midwives in public hospitals had been treated.

Sarah Beaman (left) said the police deal was “phenomenal”, and that nurses deserved better treatment.Credit: Courtney Kruk

“It’s actually quite outrageous that nurses and midwives have been fighting for months and months to defend even the conditions we currently have in our agreement, when the government is quick to do a better deal with police,” she said.

“The disparity around how they’ve undertaken the agreement, the disparity around the speed at which they’ve achieved agreement, and the disparity around the ability to go so far over the public sector wages policy – that’s what I’m calling out today.”

Under the state government’s public sector wages policy, pay rises this year are limited to 3 per cent, followed by 2.5 per cent over the next two years.

During budget estimates, shadow treasurer Shannon Fentiman asked Under Treasurer Paul Williams whether the government had any extra funding in the budget for the police retention payment above and beyond the government wage policy.

Williams said there was not, and this would need to be found in the mid financial year update to the budget in December, or the 2025-26 budget next June.

At Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads, engineers and technical workers seeking a wage increase of between 19 and 23.5 per cent were told to go home on Tuesday if they engaged in industrial action other than updating their email signatures or auto replies.

A spokesperson for the department said pay would be withheld for employees who chose not to fulfil their regular duties, as members of the Professionals Australia union launched a campaign of action that included not submitting timesheets or completing training.

Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg said he respected the right of union members to take protected industrial action, and no projects or programs would be impacted.

“TMR is continuing to meet with union representatives to reach an in-principle agreement,” he added.

with Felicity Caldwell and Matt Dennien

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