Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with CPSU Regional Secretary Kay Densley about the loss of 400 public servants in the Territory

Transcript

Katie spoke with CPSU Regional Secretary Kay Densley about the loss of 400 public servants in the Territory · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we know that four hundred public servants have been
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: sacked because they refuse to get the COVID JAP and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister wants to cash in using the savings
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to get public servants to support the four year wage freeze.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is Kay Densley, the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: CPSU NTI Regional Secretary. Good morning to UK.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Now k four.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Hundred public servants out of their jobs. The Chief Minister
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: says that it's going to have no impact on service delivery.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: How is it possible that four hundred public servants are
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: being lost and it's not even going to have an
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: impact on that service delivery?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Well, let's hope it doesn't. But all those people actually
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: did a job, and so you know who's going to
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: do that work if they're not going to be replaced.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: We still don't know the figures about where in agency
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: is what these people did. Will received no information from
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: the Commissioner or the government about this, so we'll be
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: asking questions.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, how do you think that, I mean, how do
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you think that the Chief Minister can actually say it's
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: not going to impact service delivery when the unions don't
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: even know what jobs are being lost.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Well, either he knows something we don't, or you know,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I'm really unsure. So we're actually meeting with the Commissioner
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: for Public Employment this afternoon. We got an invitation late yesterday,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: so we'll be asking her that question and hopefully she
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: can provide us with a breakdown of where these jobs are.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Do you think that it is going to impact service delivery?
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Well, let's hope not. There's a lot of people out
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: there during two and three jobs now because vacancy is
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: you know, being left vacant for far too long. So
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I think that each each agency is going to have
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: to have a look at what services they actually provide
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and what stuff they have to do that. If this
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: is the.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Case, it does obviously mean that there's going to be
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a thirty million dollar saving, and the Chief Minister wants
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to use that money to get public servants to support
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: this controversial four year wage freeze. What it's going to mean,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: from what I can gather, is an increase in that
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: cash bonus from one thousand dollars to four thousand dollars
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: that public servants would receive in the first year of
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: that pay freeze. In lou of course, of a pay
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: rise now they then receive a two thousand dollars annual
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: retention bonus for the subsequent three years. Kay, when did
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you first learn about this proposal.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: We first learned about it yesterday morning, just before the
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Chief Minister sent out an email to all n GPS employees.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: So it's a welcome change. We've been calling on him
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: to change the wages policy, so that's welcome. It's a
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: pretty big amount of money, but it's still a bonus
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: and it doesn't add to people. Sorry, And we've been
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: receiving feedback from a lot of our members about this,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: and it's a little bit mixed, but the majority of
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: them are saying that they want to increase to their salary.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: So they don't want to go down this path of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: receiving the bonus. They want to stick with the increase
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to their salary.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Well, the Chief Ministers invited the unions to provide alternatives,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: so we're preparing to do that today to our members,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to us them exactly what they want. So obviously members
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: always direct where we go with this. Also, we'll get
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: a formal offer today, I presume from the Commissioner in
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: our meeting, which means that we can actually put that
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: out to members as well. So and we don't know
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: what the changes are to the waste of policy about
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: whether or not the bonuses announced by the Chief Minister
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: will actually be in the wages policy, which or else
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: said will give us room to be able to actually
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: put up proposals.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: So kay, what kind of proposals are the unions thinking
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: at this point in time?
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Well, obviously we want a cumulative pay rise and you know,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: he's given us an envelope of money I guess to
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: work with, and there are some alternatives that we can
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: put out to members and a lot of suggestions for
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: members about how that would work as well. So we're
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: just working on that now.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, we are talking about a six thousand dollars
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: improvement for public servants over four years on the government's
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: current current offer. Why is that not good enough?
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Well, it is, but you know it's a lot of money.
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  Speaker 2: It's a bonus though it's taxable, and it doesn't at
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: in four years time, you know, wages and salary are
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: going to be the same again. So Economyss Reserve Bank,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: everyone seems to be calling out for wages growth and
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister isn't he wants to freeze wages. So,
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  Speaker 2: as I said, we're working on an alternative to send
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: out to members, hopefully today and we'll see what they say.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, a lot of people listening this morning are going
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to be incredibly riled up, feeling as though this is
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: really unfair and that if we've got a thirty million
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: dollar saving that should maybe be going into something like
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: our health system, which is struggling at the moment. Are
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: public servants just being greedy?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. Public servants have been doing a lot,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: and it's good that the Chief Minister actually said that
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: during his press conference as well as in the latter
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: that he realizes the additional work that they've been doing,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: especially in b lieu of the pandemic and lockdowns and
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: lockouts and whatever. So they've been working hard, and you know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: they deserve a pay riser, same as everybody else.
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  Speaker 1: Aren't the private sector? I mean, aren't the private sector
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: doing a lot and working incredibly hard as well and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: deserve you know, to see some of those some of
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: those different you know, different areas where we are seeing
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: things fall down a bit, like the health sect. Wouldn't
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: it be a good thing to see that money invested
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: into areas like that which would benefit all territories.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Well, previous savings from the public service have gone into
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: those types of tooth the coffers, I guess, so that
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: these things can be provided. So it's good to see
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: that it's going back in the public service.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: I remember how many public servants we have, and they're
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: spending power in the community and the money that they
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: give to local businesses. So what the payprees does is
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: basically inhibit that and make them think about where they
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: spend their money. So you know, it's not a matter
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: of them sort of holding it away. They're the ones
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: that are keeping the economy going and growing, and that's
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: what we want in the territory.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Okay. One of the things that we had been told
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: by the Chief Ministers sort of time and time again,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: after that Langlent report came out looking at the different
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: savings that needed to happen in the Northern Territory. We
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: were told that, you know, he did not want to
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: see cuts to the public service. But now it seems
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: like it's a total about face. I know that these
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: four hundred people have obviously chosen not to have the vaccine,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: but are you sort of quite surprised by the way
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that this has now changed in the last couple of years.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not surprised, but Langoland in the report there that
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: was the chu moltive's pay rights, it was a thousand
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: dollars k motive and it's the same sort of report
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: that he did for Western Australia, and that's what happened
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: to the public service there. They got a thousand dollars
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: a year that was c motive. That's a lot different
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: than a thousand dollar bonus or four and two thousand
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: dollars bonus that's taxable. And you know what do people
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: do with that? They either say that payoff their mortgage
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: or their credit card. A pay increase each fortnight is
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: something that increases their spending power in the community.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: So, Kyle, guess a big question at this point is
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: we know that the announcements obviously come two weeks after
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the Community in Public sector union members voted overwhelmingly to
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: reject the government's one thousand dollars wage freeze plan. What's
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: going to happen with this latest proposal and with those
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: discussions that are sit to happen today.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't just a CP issue, by the way,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: it was referring to you. United Workers' Unions, the nurses,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: the teachers are all involved in the general agreement and
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the other agreements that were voted down. So today we'll
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: consider what we get as a formal offer. We'll also
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: consider any changes to the wages policy because we haven't
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: seen that neither, and we'll be asking our members about
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: what they think. I know that they're trying to get
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: it out before Christmas, was got four weeks for that.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: There's some fair work timeframes, for example, a minimum of
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: seven days for an access period and then of course
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: the vote, so time frames are really tight to do that,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: which is why we're trying to get out to members
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: as soon as possible to us than their.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: For you, well, Kay Densilely, I appreciate your time this morning.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I'll be very keen to keep in contact and find
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: out you know, what other offers are put forward or
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: what ends up happening with all of this, and what
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the members have to say as well. Great, thank you,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: thank you, appreciate your time.