NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has stopped short of saying whether his promise to scrap the public sector wage cap would amount to a pay rise for workers.
With 10 days until the state election, Mr Minns was today quizzed on the upshot of scrapping the 3 per cent wage cap during Channel Nine's leaders debate.
During campaigning, the Opposition Leader has argued removing the cap was vital to retaining essential workers in NSW, and, stopping a brain drain to other states that don't have wage caps.
But today, he couldn't confirm its removal would translate into wage increases for public servants.
"We need to do that around the table and that needs to be a negotiation that can only happen in government," Mr Minns said.
"The reason we need to do it is 2,500 constables have left the police force in the last four years, 6,500 nurses have quit in the last 12 months and there's 3,000 teacher vacancies in New South Wales schools."
Pressed again on whether workers could expect an increase above 3 per cent under a Labor government, Mr Minns still didn't give a straight answer.
"If we sit down and we've got strict economic principles in place then we are happy to negotiate in relation to that but it will be with budget savings and productivity gains, like the rest of the country does."
Premier Dominic Perrottet said this sounded a lot like the Coalition's policy.
"...we have a responsible wages cap in place of 3 per cent and if public servants find savings above that, then they are able to get an additional pay rise."
Abolishing the wage cap is one of Labor's key offerings they hope will appeal to voters struggling to make ends meet in the current economic climate of rising inflation and interest rates.
The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows there were more than 520,000 public sector employees in NSW in 2022.
Last year, thousands of teachers, nurses and transport workers across the state took industrial action for months in a row over "unsustainable" pay and workloads.
After much pressure to lift the 2.5 per cent wage cap, the NSW government agreed to give all public sector workers a 3 per cent increase in 2022-23 and 2023-2024.
It also raised a potential extra 0.5 per cent in 2023-24 for employees that make a substantial contribution to productivity.
The government put forward a deal to the rail union of a 2.5 per cent increase for 2022 and 3 per cent for 2023 but last week the Fair Work Commission said this represented a "significant decline" in real wages.
The commission ruled all rail workers must receive an additional 1 per cent backdated to May 1, 2022, and another 1 per cent from May this year.
