SA public servants reject pay deal

By Melanie Sjoberg

ADELAIDE -- One thousand public servants crammed into the Art Theatre here on April 9 for a stop-work meeting to protest against the state Liberal government's new wages policy, which was slipped into public service departments the previous week.

Not satisfied with restricting most public sector workers to a pay rise of only $36 in the past three years in exchange for 15,000 job cuts, the government now offers a paltry 2% if workers can find productivity savings of 1% within their agency. Most public services are not revenue-raising; therefore the offer essentially means that more job cuts will be necessary to achieve a pay rise.

An amendment from the floor to increase the 15% claim being put by the union to 17%, and insist it be paid up front rather than spread over two years, was accepted overwhelmingly by the meeting. The meeting endorsed a campaign to reunite the state public service as one ``enterprise'' to overcome the disparate nature of current bargaining on an agency basis.

Public Service Association vice-president John McGuinness roused the crowd when he reminded union members that while they faced wage restraint and job cutbacks, politicians had received pay increases of more than 40%.

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