Union secures big pay rise for public servants from McGowan

The McGowan government has bowed to union pressure and introduced some of the most generous public sector pay rises in the country in an attempt to counter rampant inflation.

Premier of West Australia, Mark McGowan. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

The McGowan government has bowed to union pressure and introduced some of the most generous public sector pay rises in the country in an attempt to counter rampant inflation.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan on Sunday announced that the state’s 150,000 public servants would receive pay increases of 3 per cent a year for the next two years, plus a $2500 one-off cost-of-living bonus.

It is the second salary sweetener for WA public servants in eight months, after the government’s decision in December to abandon the freeze on public sector wages in place since it came to power in 2017. There have been growing calls from some unions for industrial action, with WA’s health workers in particular threatening in recent weeks to go on strike.

The latest measures, which sweeten the earlier 2.5 per cent, $1000-bonus offer, will cost the state budget an extra $634m.

Perth has the highest inflation rate of any capital city, with the consumer price index having risen by 7.4 per cent year on year, while WA’s public service has faced stiff competition for labour from the resources sector.

“We’re never going to be able to compete with the mining industry,” Mr McGowan said.

“But a public sector job is a secure job, it’s a good job, it provides all sorts of opportunities for promotion and to move around Western Australia and provide a good quality of life for yourself and family. It’s one that we want to properly reward and properly ensure that everyone gets a decent pay increase.”

Mr McGowan said the increases were more generous than the wages policies in place in NSW and Victoria and would mean the “vast majority” of workers would get an increase this year that is above the inflation rate.

“We’re not requiring productivity offsets for this, we just want to make sure that in the environment we’re in, where we have significant competition for labour and we have very vibrant and very successful economy, that we have a well-rewarded workforce, that we resolve these EBA issues, and we get back to the business of service delivery,” he said.

The increased pay offer met with a mixed response from ­unions.

Owen Whittle, the secretary of UnionsWA, said crucial professions such as teachers, police, prison officers, firefighters, child protection workers and health professionals had all been going backwards since the McGowan government was elected.

“This policy will fail to adequately address the problems of attraction and retention in these critical areas of service to the West Australian public,” Mr Whittle said. He said the government had failed to consult with unions on the wages policy.

“Unions will take time to work with our members and delegates to respond more fully to the McGowan government’s changed policy,” he said.

“There’s been a missed opportunity to engage positively during this economic challenge to design a policy that meets the needs of the public sector workforce and public services.”

The opposition, meanwhile, said the government had failed to do enough to help all WA households cope with rising cost-of-­living pressures. Opposition treasury spokesman Steve Thomas said the government could have helped everyone in the state by freezing household fees and charges this year.

“The Premier could have been more generous to more Western Australians, rather than simply giving in to the unions that control the public service,” he said.

“It’s critical that the government looks after the cost of living and the people who are struggling at a time when they have the biggest surpluses in the history of any jurisdiction in this nation.”