TEACHERS, nurses, police, fire fighters and ambulance officers were among the workers taking to the streets around NSW in protest of the State Government’s wages legislation.
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In Port Macquarie around 500 public sector workers supported strike action and marched from Westport Park to the Town Green last Thursday. The rally included around 60 teachers from the Camden Haven.
Camden Haven High School teacher and secretary of the Camden Haven branch of the NSW Teachers Federation, Darren Mearrick, said the strike action expressed the public sector’s anger over a recent legislation that would cap salary increases at 2.5 per cent and reduce the power of the Indistrial Relations Commission to arbitrate in wage cases.
Also under fire was the O’Farrell Government’s decision, announced in last week’s budget, that 5000 jobs would be cut from the public sector through a program of voluntary redundancies. The Teachers Federation believes the loss of these jobs in the education sector would have a flow on effect to students and teaching quality, by impacting on the support teachers receive from office and casual staff.
Mr Mearrick said the protest had been reduced, in some media reports, to a dispute over the wage cap. He said the major concern for him and fellow teachers was the impact on the independent umpire, the Industrial Relations Commission.
“The 2.5 per cent cap will mean an average teachers salary is reduced by $75 per week over four years which will have a big flow-on effect to the Camden Haven community with the large number of public sector workers not spending that amount of money in the area,” he said.
“But the big concern is the changes to the umpire, the Industrial Relations Commission.”
Local teacher Greg Cousins said the legislation means there will no longer be an ajudicator in pay disputes.
“It’s like the police being able to arrest someone and send them straight to prison, no trial,” Mr Cousins said.
Mr Mearrick said the local Teachers Federation branch met with local Nationals MP Leslie Williams recently over the legislation.
“We were disappointed by her support of a policy we think is wrong,” Mr Mearrick said.
Mrs Williams, a former nurse, said the protest centred around a policy introduced by the previous government.
“The NSW Government has no intention of reducing entitlements and conditions and we are not in the business of taking conditions away from public servants. It is up to the unions if they want to use them to negotiate for higher wages, as has occurred in the past,” Mrs Williams said.
“If any nurse or teacher can show me how their conditions and entitlementss have changed for the worse since the Liberals & Nationals came to Government, I ask them to write to me immediately and I will be the first to pass on that information to the Ministers.
“The Liberals and Nationals Government are committed to getting the state’s finances back on track and improving frontline services. Saving $900 million a year will help us to achieve that.”
Mr Mearrick said the Teachers Federation and the rest of the public sector would continue to fight the policy until it was changed.
“Teachers don’t like to stop work, most of us are parents too and we know what an impact strike action can have,” he said.
“But we believe this policy will have a bigger impact on the future of services provided. We are predicting a four-year battle. If the policy is changed then the dispute will be over. To us this policy is worse than Work Choices, and we beat that.”
