Unions have begun pushing the Queensland government for wage increases across the public service that meet inflation – which is running at a 20-year high – with key agreements set to expire this year.
The current work agreements for teachers, nurses, police officers and transport workers are all set to end in the coming months.
This comes as annual inflation reaches 5.1%, with the cost of living rapidly outpacing the state government’s official wages policy that has had salary increases capped at 2.5%.
The president of the Queensland Teacher’s Union, Cresta Richardson, said the union and the Department of Education would be using a “an interest-based bargaining approach” across eight areas, including salaries.
Richardson said the union’s aim was to achieve salaries and conditions “that acknowledge and reward the work of school leaders and teachers” and addresses the “unprecedented times we live in, in terms of inflation”.
Sally McManus, the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, told Guardian Australia she would support a wage increase for public sector workers to keep up with the rising rate of inflation.
“Wages … have been flatlining before they went backwards for 10 years. Last year, the average worker lost $800. This year, we’re on track to lose $1,000,” McManus said.
“People don’t want to see their wages go backwards. People want to make sure they can get pay rises that deal with the inflation that we’ve got.”
McManus also said wage caps should be scrapped and replaced with fair bargaining.
“Having wage increases in both productivity and CPI is what’s really important in some sectors … like aged care,” McManus said.
“Those jobs have been undervalued, and so they need to be reevaluated to reflect the skills and the importance of the work.”
Dr Richard Denniss, the chief economist at the Australia Institute, said wages should be increased beyond the rate of inflation.
“The Reserve Bank governor has made it clear that we need to have real wage growth, that is, wage growth over and above inflation,” Denniss said.
“Wage growth is good for small business, big business and it help public servants keep up with the rapidly rising inflation cycle.”
In 2020, the Queensland government froze wages for public servants who were due for a pay rise in the next financial year to “maximise the protection of public sector employment.”
A report the same year by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work revealed freezing public sector wages would cost the Queensland economy $9bn over three years.
The Centre for Future Work report, by the economist Dan Nahum, warned of the “deeply damaging” results from any austerity measures targeting government workers.
“We will need more public services, more government income supports, and more decent public sector jobs as Australia strives to recover from this unprecedented crisis,” Nahum said at the time.
“The idea of pulling money out of an economy at a time like this, and pulling services out at a time like this, is a really alarming idea.”
The report also noted that two in three public sector jobs in Queensland are based outside Brisbane, and that regional areas would be more affected by an austerity policy towards the public sector.
Dr Denniss said Nahum’s arguments still stand. He said every additional dollar spent by the state government on higher wages would go into the pockets of people who spend that money in their local communities.
“Australia has record high profits as a share of GDP and the owners of companies are doing better than they’ve ever done,” he said.
“To suggest that now is not the time to increase wages because it might lead to some reduction in profits is absurd.
“While some businesses are adamant that if their wages went up they might lay off some workers, all businesses benefit when their customers get a pay rise.”
