By Jennifer Long
SYDNEY — Members of the Public Service Association (PSA) have voted to accept the NSW government's pay offer of 16% over four and a half years.
More than 10,000 members voted to accept the offer, about 75% of total votes cast. A minority of 3411 (25%) voted to reject the offer and the public service "reform" measures that were attached to it.
The ballot was conducted without any prior consultation with PSA members. The PSA executive only allowed arguments in favour of accepting the offer to be expressed through official union channels. This made it difficult for those unionists who opposed the deal, such as the Progressive PSA (PPSA) group, to win over the membership.
However, in work areas where the PPSA's arguments were circulated, members overwhelmingly rejected the pay offer.
The essence of PSA president Maurie O'Sullivan's arguments in favour of the accepting the deal was that its miserly terms were the best that PSA members could hope for. The PSA executive even gave a guarantee to the union's central council before the ballot that no other public sector union in NSW would win a better deal for its members.
The NSW Teachers Federation pursued a different strategy. It rejected the 16% offer and pursued a campaign of industrial action. It looks likely that its members will win a better deal from the government, possibly a 19.3% pay rise.
Alana Kerr, a Democratic Socialist Party member active in the PSA, told Green Left Weekly that PSA members "must hold the government to its promise to review the agreement in light of the GST's impact. The PSA must be prepared to take industrial action to demand GST compensation from the government."
Kerr said that in NSW, public service workers "are faced with a Labor government hell-bent on cutting public sector jobs, conditions and services. We have heard that the government intends to cut $450 million from the public sector during the life of the pay deal, which will mean a 6% cut in staff across the board.
"The leadership of the PSA has failed to put up any resistance to the Labor government's attacks on the public sector, but it is still not too late to conduct a serious, public service-wide campaign to defend jobs and services. It is needed now more than ever", Kerr said.