Sad day for working people – a blow to economy

Independent Education Union of Australia NSW/ACT Branch

Sad day for working people – a blow to the economy

The NSW Government’s public sector wage cuts will needlessly prolong and deepen the negative impacts on our economy by depriving 400,000 public sector workers throughout the state, in suburbs and regions, of much needed jobs and hard earned wage growth.

The NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) today effectively upheld the wage cut, ruling a paltry 0.3% pay rise, after it was rejected by the NSW Upper House in June.

This is a missed opportunity to make a crucial investment in NSW and a sad day for its communities. It is another blow to the economy, and the working people who make it go, who deserved support and investment to reboot our struggling communities.

“The Independent Education Union of Australia NSW/ACT Branch (IEU) expresses our solidarity with the workers of NSW, with their families and communities. The implications of this decision will reverberate through every household and workplace, powerfully dampening economic growth and the position of the state’s workers and their families. Now more than ever, the state’s workers needed a shot in the arm, not a kick in the teeth,” Acting Secretary Pam Smith said.

“Many of our members will be impacted directly or indirectly; through their partners, children, and community connections, who will feel the pinch of this callous and insensitive decision.”

Time and again workers have been told we are all in this together and urged to show frontline workers the respect they are due for working through this scary and uncertain pandemic. This decision, authored and directed by the NSW Liberal Government, to effectively freeze the wages of 400,000 workers in the state shows these exhortations to be nothing but rhetoric.

Together with five public sector unions, the IEU appeared before the Full Bench of the IRC to challenge the NSW Government’s decision to freeze wages. Any decisions in the public sector will effectively benchmark and influence our bargaining position when we negotiate for our own enterprise agreements with our non-government employers.

“You can’t pay your bills with thanks, and you can’t cut your way to growth. The workers of NSW deserve better,” said Smith.

/Public Release.