PS workers weigh strikes

PUBLIC servants are prepared to strike if a 2 per cent wage rise is enshrined in the State Budget next month, a key union is warning.

Public sector workers will demand a 3 per cent pay rise in negotiations with the State Government and say industrial action will follow if their claim is not met.

The Community and Public Sector Union has launched its campaign for a new wages agreement, with the current deal expiring on June 30.

State secretary Tom Lynch said a majority of his members were willing to take industrial action.

“There’s a lot of unpaid work being done and the goodwill the public sector workers have shown the Government is likely to be cut off,” Mr Lynch said.

“If we can’t get the Government to agree to decent wage increases doing that, it will have to escalate and there’s a large number of people who are willing to go on strike in pursuit of this.”

Treasurer Peter Gutwein has refused to budge on the Government’s 2 per cent offer.

Mr Gutwein said this week that public servants earned an average of $110,000 each year, with most receiving 12-monthly raises.

Mr Lynch and the Labor Opposition have rejected the figure, adamant more than 80 per cent earn less than the figure, and say overtime and senior executive salaries have inflated it.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the average figure is closer to $74,000, marginally higher than Tasmania’s average of about $70,000, they say.

“Most of our public servants only dream of that sort of pay,” Opposition Leader Rebecca White said.

“They work extremely hard delivering the vital services that our community relies on, while Peter Gutwein sits in his ivory tower talking down to them.”

Mr Lynch said Tasmanian public servants were on track to earn $130 a week less than their interstate equivalents.

Half were part-time workers and two thirds had reached their top pay rate and were unable to progress, he said.

Mr Lynch said a 2 per cent rise in the State Budget on June 14 would mean industrial action was likely.

“That’s the Government rejecting the statement of intent,” he said.

“That’s when our campaign will ramp up.”

Mr Gutwein said public servants deserved a rise of 2 per cent.

Labor leader Rebecca White