Dispute has run too long

The Christmas truce in the state’s industrial relations war has broken with public sector unions to next week resume their industrial campaign in earnest.

State Treasurer Peter Gutwein.

THE Christmas truce in the state’s industrial relations war has broken. Public sector unions will next week resume their industrial campaign in earnest with a series of stop-work meetings around the state. There will be disruption as teachers and nurses, park rangers, corrections officers and others walk off the job.

The school closures will be the biggest disruption for most. Parents will need to make alternative arrangements as many schools are expected to open late or close early. There will be inconvenience and confusion, as happened on the two occasions last year when teachers walked out.

SCHOOLS TO CLOSE AS STOP-WORK ACTION SNOWBALLS

They and other public servants have been negotiating with the Government for months trying to achieve agreement on a new deal for pay and conditions for the next three years. There has been industrial action and work bans and angry talk — including claims of bad faith bargaining from both sides.

Since being elected to office five years ago, the Government has maintained a hard line on its 2 per cent cap on public sector pay increases. While pay is not the only matter at issue in the dispute, it remains a major sticking point, emblematic of the gulf that remains between the two sides. The Government has improved its offer slightly, but public servants are sticking to their demand for 3 per cent a year.

Unions point out that public servants have accepted austerity for long enough and say that given increases in the cost of living, public servants are going backwards. It is also the case that some public sector workers are slipping behind their counterparts in other states who are not subject to similar caps.

The Government’s counterpoint is relatively simple: the precariously balanced state budget can’t afford to absorb the pay increase that public servants are seeking. Treasurer Peter Gutwein has repeatedly said the cost is too great and that a government elected on a platform of fiscal responsibility must live up to that promise.

For mums and dads scrambling to make arrangements to deal with schools that will be closed on parts of Tuesday or Wednesday, who is right and who is wrong is not of greatest concern. The same would apply to hospital patients whose surgery was delayed, or prisoners facing a day or two locked in their cells.

The Government has shown a willingness to move by increasing — very slightly — its pay offer. Unions have shown a willingness to suspend industrial action to give negotiations a chance. But next week’s stop-work actions signal a serious deterioration.

The next round of high-level talks between the parties is scheduled for tomorrow. There hopefully is still time to head off next week’s action and escalations beyond. It needs a toning down of the rhetoric, no stand-downs of workers, no docking of pay and a show of serious goodwill from both sides. This dispute has gone on for too long and must be resolved.