Agreement includes 11.4% pay rise over next three years
More than 90,000 public sector workers in New South Wales are set to benefit from a new multi-year pay agreement reached by the state government and the Public Service Association (PSA).
The agreement includes an 11.4% pay rise over the next three years, aimed at improving wages for employees, including prison guards, school assistants, and other essential workers.
According to the NSW government, a typical employee covered by the agreement will now be approximately $5,274.89 better off compared to the previous wage cap set by the former government.
The pay increase, which comes after months of negotiations, builds on the 4.5% wage rise delivered last year, the largest in more than a decade.
"This agreement is proof that a mature government can bargain to reach a deal that's good for taxpayers and good for workers," said Treasurer Daniel Mookhey in a statement.
The new pay agreement was made possible through new agreements between the state government and the PSA under the new mutual bargaining framework. The terms of the agreement include:
- Working towards reducing injury rates, to help minimise pressure on the state's workers' compensation scheme
- Overhauling redeployment policies to reduce redundancy costs, encouraging workers to stay rather than leave the public service
- Modernising awards to remove redundant allowances, like the "word processing allowance"
"Our mutual gains bargaining system has worked. In a cost-of-living crisis, we are delivering meaningful pay rises to people," Mookhey said. "I want to thank the PSA leadership and their members for tough but fair negotiations."
The Mutual Gains Bargaining, a new cooperative negotiation model for the government and the unions, was introduced late last year by the NSW government. It comes after the state delivered on its promise to scrap the wages cap that affected the wages of many public servants for more than a decade.
