30 August 2017
Business SA is today calling on the Public Service Association of South Australia to consider wage restraint, at a time of high unemployment and tough economic conditions.
The Public Service Association is undergoing a round of bargaining to update its current Enterprise Agreement, and is seeking a 2.5 per cent annual wage rise among other improvements to conditions.
Business SA Chief Executive Nigel McBride said the average South Australian pay gap between weekly full-time public sector wages and private sector wages already sat at 19 per cent compared to the national average of 10 per cent, and needed to be contained.
He continued to support the Weatherill Government’s budgetary announcement in 2016 to cap public sector wage growth to 1.5 per cent, which all unions should adhere to while the state faced economic storm clouds as Holden prepared to close.
“Business SA congratulates Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis for holding the line against union bosses who are out of touch and ignorant of the tough economic conditions facing ordinary South Australians,” Mr McBride said.
“We support the government’s stance on wage growth control, particularly when the state’s public sector is the largest per capita in the nation.”
As the public service wage bill is set to cost the state $8.3 billion this financial year, increasing from $8 billion last year, the state simply cannot afford wage growth above the Government’s cap.
Mr McBride said the time had come for fiscal responsibility in the public sector, when small to medium-sized enterprises are struggling to award wage rises, unemployment is set to rise and people are moving from full time jobs to part-time work or facing under-employment.
“We endorse the Treasurer’s courage against the threats of the union bosses,” he said.
“The Government must responsibly constrain wages. The public sector already operates under better conditions than most small to medium-sized enterprises, including tenure, redundancy packages and annual pay rises, which the mainly small-to-medium-sized enterprise sector struggles to deliver.”