Wages Cap Campaign Bears Fruit

The WA PTA Branch’s long-running campaign to lift the Western Australian Government’s salary cap has borne fruit, with the WA Government announcing it will increase the budget for public sector wages by $1.2 billion.

Public sector workers will be offered a 2.5 per cent wage increase per annum over the next two years plus the choice of either a one-off $1,000 payment or an additional 0.25 per cent per annum.

WA PTA Branch Secretary Joshua Dekuyer says it’s less than what public sector unions have been campaigning for, but a good step forward.

The previous cap - which was set at a flat $1,000 a year - was introduced in 2017 to assist budget repair.

At the time, it was the most restrictive wages policy in the country and suppressed wage increases of public sector workers to below the rise in cost of living.

To fight the cap, the RTBU joined other WA public sector unions in 2021 to form a Public Sector Alliance comprising rail workers, public school teachers and support staff, health workers, prison officers, firefighters, engineers, and community service workers, among others.

“We have been successfully working to reform the WA Government’s wicked wage-fixing policy and have been calling on the Government to enter into good-faith negotiations and return to genuine enterprise bargaining with the public sector,” Joshua said.

As part of the campaign the RTBU and Public Sector Alliance unions sent submissions to Premier Mark McGowan and Industrial Relations Minister Stephen Dawson.

In the RTBU’s submission Joshua pointed out that while the Labor Government’s investment in projects such as Metronet should be applauded, the pay cap meant the Government was unable to attract, recruit, and retain public sector transport workers.

“As an example, in 2021 the Public Transport Authority lost approximately 30 Railcar Drivers and 40 Transit Officers,” Joshua said.

“It is important to understand that it takes the PTA six months to train a Railcar Driver. They can only have about 14 trainees at a time and can only run two training schools a year.

“We know the PTA is set to lose another dozen Railcar Drivers to BHP, Aurizon, and Rio Tinto. And more than 60 drivers are approaching retirement within the next several years.

“Our state infrastructure workers are also leaving the PTA and working for companies contracted to the PTA for the Metronet project because the pay is significantly higher.”

Public Sector Alliance submission included members’ stories on the negative impact of the wages policy.

RTBU member Terry, a Railcar Driver, said in his submission that the salary cap was causing workers to leave the public service, creating huge strains on those left behind.

“The rest of us will flee, and those remaining will lose all motivation,” Terry wrote.

“I have watched more than a dozen colleagues leave in the past eight weeks and head for greener pastures with BHP and Rio Tinto.

“Invest in your workforce, or your workforce will invest their skills with somebody who pays them the money they deserve.”

Transit Officer James says his family, including two young children, has suffered over the past four years due to the pay cap.

“This has had a corrosive effect on our lives, where even the essentials are being neglected,” James wrote.

“The change of lifestyle due to the almost non-existent wage increase mixed with rising costs causes depression, family and health problems, low morale in the workplace, and is a negative spiral that is becoming harder and harder to recover from.

“I only ask that the Government gives serious consideration to the sacrifice workers made over the past years.”