Public Service Minister Ben Morton has issued a wages challenge to the main public service union, the CPSU, to admit public servants are better off now than before he took over the portfolio.
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In an interview with The Canberra Times, the recently promoted Public Service Minister thanked public servants for the accepting a wage freeze during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also defending the move in November to replace the controversial Tony Abbott-era wage rise cap, last set at 2 per cent, with a floating limit tied to private sector pay increases.
The new wages policy, brought in by Mr Morton while assistant minister for the Public Service, ties public sector wages to the private sector and broader economic conditions.
He says the wage shift which was criticised by the CPSU and federal Labor - and the now-lifted freeze on wages during the pandemic - has been misconstrued.
"I would say that it was right for there to be a pause in relation to pay increases during the time of pandemic and I had many public servants contact me understanding and accepting why that was so," Mr Morton said.
"I thought the CPSU were disconnected from the membership in relation to their campaign against that, but I also think that removing the 2 per cent cap on pay rises within the public service means that as the wage price index for the private sector grows, as it is expected to grow, we will now see that grow past 2 per cent."
The change in wages policy allows public servants to negotiate remuneration rises greater or lower than 2 per cent depending on private sector wage growth, but public sector wage rises would never exceed wage rises in the private sector.
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The first pay increase under the new policy was a maximum 1.9 per cent pay rise announced in August based on the latest Wage Price Index.
The public sector union criticised the change in direction as being dictated by government, disallowing union bargaining and tied to economic headwinds, perhaps economic mismanagement.
"They need to be really frank. They need to be honest. They need to say, is this government wages policy better than the last?" the minister said.
"And if that's the case, would they prefer this government wages policy stay? Or do they want it to revert back to what it was before I made the most recent change? That is a very straight question that public servants deserve a very straight answer to from the CPSU.
"Not ahh we'd like to see it change differently or we wanted more. Quite simply, the choice between what it was before Ben Morton changed it and what it is now, if you've got the choice between that or that, which one do you want? And I just like them to ask that question straight."
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The minister says he thanks public servants for their understanding and for hard work during the pandemic.
"The success that Australia has had in dealing with COVID a great success in relation to our health outcomes, and in relation to our economic outcomes has been something that has been delivered on the advice and the implementation of the public service," he said.
"And so I say thank you. I say thank you particularly to those public servants that were that offered quite quickly, to leave their, their workplace as usual. And to to be seconded into other departments of need."
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