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Kay Densley, Regional Secretary of the CPSU, on whether a $4,000 pay bonus will need to be paid back after the wage freeze was quashed · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, it was reported over the weekend that the full
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: bench of the Fair Work Commission quashed the Northern Territory
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: government's enterprise agreement that greenlit are four year wage freeze. Now,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: as we know, thousands of Northern Territory public servants voted
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: last year to approve the wage freeze in exchange for
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: payments totaling ten grand paid over four years. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: first four thousand was paid out in January and March,
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  Speaker 1: as I understand it, So what does this decision mean
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: for public servants? Well, joining me on the line is
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  Speaker 1: Kay Densley, the Regional Secretary with the CPSU. Good Morning
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  Speaker 1: to UK.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie Ka.
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  Speaker 1: Are public servants going to have to pay this bonus back?
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  Speaker 2: No? So what's happened is with an administrative mistake that
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  Speaker 2: the agreement that people voted on a different version and
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: earlier version was sent through to Fair Work for their approval,
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  Speaker 2: which they did do, and then legal advice came back
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  Speaker 2: saying well no, that would cause a huge problem. So
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: OCP had to apply to have a quashed and reapply
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  Speaker 2: again to have the correct agreements approved by Fair Work,
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  Speaker 2: and also an extension of time because they're passed supporting
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: days when employees got to vote. So meanwhile, the commissioners
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  Speaker 2: put out a determination which covers all those enhancements from
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  Speaker 2: the conditions from the twenty one twenty five agreements. I
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  Speaker 2: keep calling it the current agreement, but it's not really
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  Speaker 2: because it doesn't exist at the moment. But yeah, so hopefully,
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  Speaker 2: hopefully Fairwell will grant the extension, and that's very likely.
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  Speaker 2: But if they don't, of course, you know, people would
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  Speaker 2: have to go out for a vote again, and.
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  Speaker 1: So so what will happen now? So basically you just
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  Speaker 1: have to wait for that process to happen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So they've done that quashing and we haven't
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  Speaker 2: got a time frame for or the full bench to
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  Speaker 2: talk to look at granting the extension or the approval
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  Speaker 2: of the new agreement. So we're all just waiting on that.
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  Speaker 2: It was only last Friday that that happened, so we're
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  Speaker 2: hoping that sometime this week they'll give us states when
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  Speaker 2: that that can occur.
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  Speaker 1: So any any idea whose sort of error was or
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  Speaker 1: was it you know, human era, No one really at.
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  Speaker 2: Fault, Well, it was obviously human eraror that the wrong
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  Speaker 2: agreement got sent through to fair Work so we have
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  Speaker 2: the last the last draft of the agreement, we check
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  Speaker 2: that out against the one that members vote on, just
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that there's been no changes that we
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  Speaker 2: don't know about. We don't check the one that they
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  Speaker 2: went to fair work. We actually get it after the fact,
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  Speaker 2: and obviously in the future we'll all have to do that.
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  Speaker 2: But it was actually one of our delegates who later
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  Speaker 2: on after the agreement was approved, notice that one of
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  Speaker 2: the sub causes was missing, and then it all all
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  Speaker 2: went from there. So it's great that our delegates are
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  Speaker 2: looking at the agreement and their conditions and picking out
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  Speaker 2: these things because it's not something we actually would have checked.
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  Speaker 1: No, And it's one of those things right where you know,
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  Speaker 1: public servants then would not want to be in a
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  Speaker 1: situation where they're having to pay it back. And I
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  Speaker 1: know that you know, there was some conjecture obviously from
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  Speaker 1: the community saying why do public servants get this pay
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  Speaker 1: bonus and others that have done it tough through COVID
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  Speaker 1: don't get that support mechanism. But at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the day, if it was a situation where anything had
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  Speaker 1: to be paid back, it would have had an impact.
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  Speaker 1: I would suspect on the whole economy. You know, people
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  Speaker 1: in many cases would have already spent that money and
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  Speaker 1: then be out of pocket, or they may be planning
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  Speaker 1: a reno or all sorts of.
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  Speaker 2: Things, oh of course. And of course you know a
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  Speaker 2: lot of it went to tax as well. So how
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  Speaker 2: you get the money off them? Now, I have no idea,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, we know and our members know that
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  Speaker 2: everyone's going to be worse off in four years anyway.
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  Speaker 2: We've all seen the petrol prices rising and the cost
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  Speaker 2: of living etc. And yeah, this is what we said
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  Speaker 2: in the first place. And you know, a labor government
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  Speaker 2: doesn't normally put a wage freezer like this. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think any of them have that I know
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  Speaker 2: of in Australia. So yeah, it's not a good thing
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  Speaker 2: when labor putting people in this position.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Well, kay Denzil, it is of course International Women's Day.
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  Speaker 1: How will you be celebrating or you know, really paying
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  Speaker 1: tribute to the wonderful women that you work with and
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  Speaker 1: in your.
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  Speaker 2: Life exactly, So obviously need to do something. And I
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  Speaker 2: have daughters as well, who I'm very proud of, and
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  Speaker 2: all members of their unions. So yeah, happy international women
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  Speaker 2: stay to all the women out there. Of course, in
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  Speaker 2: Darwin we had our march et cetera on the weekend
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  Speaker 2: and Union Union women will be having events next Saturday
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  Speaker 2: as well, so you know, these things usually last for
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  Speaker 2: a few weeks, as they should. And it's amazing the
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  Speaker 2: achievements of women over the centuries, I guess, and we're
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  Speaker 2: obviously equal partners.
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  Speaker 1: If not more, I reckon most of the blogs I know,
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  Speaker 1: I think are very supportive of the women in their lives,
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  Speaker 1: and I think that, you know, it's it is definitely
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  Speaker 1: International Women's Day and a day for us to really
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  Speaker 1: be recognized, but it's also you know, it's also a
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  Speaker 1: good reminder for us to make sure that we do
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  Speaker 1: support each other no matter what gender and and yeah,
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  Speaker 1: no matter what.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, and respect is everything and we should be doing
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  Speaker 2: we should be having respect for everyone in and outside
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  Speaker 2: of workplaces. So I think that's something that we all
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  Speaker 2: need to realize. And yeah, I think hopefully everyone gets
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  Speaker 2: to celebrate. Yep.
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  Speaker 1: Kay Densiley, good to chat with you this morning. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you so much for your time, No
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  Speaker 2: Worries, Thanks Katie, Thank you