Tasmania's Hodgman Government has introduced draft legislation for its proposal to impose a 12-month freeze on the wages and incremental increases of the state's 24,000 public servants and remove the State IRC's power to award future pay increases above a 2% Government-set cap.
Department of Human Services employees look set to be the first to vote on an offer made under the Coalition's restrictive new public sector bargaining policy, with the CPSU warning the below-inflation pay and reduced conditions on the table are "early-warning signs" of what is ahead.
The NSW Government has had a victory in its long-running battle to include compulsory superannuation increases within the public sector 2.5% wage cap, after the State's Court of Appeal quashed last year's IRC ruling that the wages cap only applied to Commission-awarded increases.
NSW Shadow IR Minister Adam Searle says the Baird Government has "busted" its wages cap with a new deal that goes beyond the 2.5% public service limit by paying for two-thirds of a recent massive rise in police officers' insurance premiums.
The NSW IRC's ability to include redundancy provisions in public sector awards that are potentially in conflict with the state government's employment policies has been restored by the Court of Appeal.
The Coalition has warned public servants there will be "minimal capacity for wage increases" in bargaining to replace 114 enterprise agreements covering 165,000 employees that are due to expire on June 30.
The NSW police force has been ordered to pay $5,000 to an officer who had his transfer applications refused, partly because of his caring responsibilities.
The FWC has ordered the United Firefighters' Union to comply with good faith bargaining obligations in its negotiations with Victoria's Country Fire Authority, while the union has lodged an appeal against the Federal Court's ruling that clauses requiring the CFA to employ additional firefighters and conduct recruitment are unconstitutional.
Queensland public servants will receive three 2.2% wage increases between now and December 2015, as a result of a Newman Government ministerial directive issued days before the Queensland Supreme Court was due to hear the government's appeal against an Industrial Court ruling on an interim pay increase.
Australian public service agencies need to develop "more mature and nuanced approaches" if they are to successfully manage employees' comments on work-related issues through social media, the APSC has warned.
