By Lachlan Malloch
SYDNEY — Members of the NSW Public Service Association (PSA) will be presented this week with a televised message from their union leaders urging them to vote for the state Labor government's offered pay rise of 16% over four and a half years.
In the short term, the pay offer amounts to a wage freeze; the proposed rise of 2% per year for the first two years does not even match the expected inflation rate.
The bulk of the pay rise will not be delivered until the last year and a half. Because the whole pay offer is conditional upon unspecified improvements in productivity and efficiency, it is not clear what will happen if, after the next state election, the government argues that productivity improvements have not been adequate.
Jenny Long, a Democratic Socialist Party member and an activist in the Progressive PSA caucus, which opposes the deal, warned: "If PSA members vote to accept these modest wage increases, they will be locking themselves into an agreement that allows the process of job cuts and rationalisation to be accelerated while preventing any further wage claims from being made".
PSA members are being encouraged to vote for the pay offer by union leaders who argue that it is the best they can hope for in the current political and industrial climate. A letter to members from union president Maurie O'Sullivan states, "The Association's lawyers were consulted at length regarding the prospects of the [Industrial Relations] Commission granting more than what was already on offer; their advice was that such a prospect was minimal".
O'Sullivan added to this pessimistic assessment of his members' prospects by pointing out that two other public sector unions, the NSW Nurses Association and the Health and Research Employees Union, have already accepted the offer.
In contrast to the PSA leadership's weak stance, the NSW Teachers Federation is campaigning for a pay rise of 7.5% per year. After large public rallies in November, the teachers indicated that their campaign would continue by holding a spirited rally outside education department headquarters in Sydney on January 25. Teachers Federation president Sue Simpson said that teachers are in need of "a substantial pay rise".
In a similar vein, the firefighters' union secretary Chris Read commented on the public service pay offer in the Sydney Morning Herald, "Firefighters know a good deal when they see it and they're still looking".
If the PSA leaders were serious about promoting their members' interests, they would also be mobilising their membership to demand a better deal.
O[To find out more about the Progressive PSA and to get involved in the campaign for a better deal, send your details to <progressive@angelfire.com> or PO Box K519, Haymarket 1240. You can also visit the Progressive PSA's web site at <www.geocities.com/capitolhill/2960>.]