Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Matt Cunningham from Sky News about holiday leave for the public sector

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Katie spoke with Matt Cunningham from Sky News about holiday leave for the public sector · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that it is being reported today in
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the paper a report by Matt Cunningham. Public servants have
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: been offered up to three days extra and you'll leave
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: as part of enterprise bargaining negotiations. Women would also have
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: their superannuation payments doubled when on maternity leave. But the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Commissioner for Public Employment is refusing to budge on a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: government in posed pay freeze, sticking to that offer of
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars cash bonus. Joining me on the line
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  Speaker 1: to talk more about this, Matt Cunningham from Sky News.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Matt, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: How are you not too bad mate? This this pay freeze? Well,
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  Speaker 1: they're sticking with the pay freeze, but it sounds as
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  Speaker 1: though they're going to get paid a bit extra in
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: other ways.
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  Speaker 2: Ye look, give with one hand and take it the other.
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  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I'm really missing these negotiations. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: we reported a few weeks ago about some of the
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  Speaker 2: other things that have been offered as part of these negotiations,
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  Speaker 2: the end of transitioning leave and night week leaves. So
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: this latest off of it's been put forward by the
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  Speaker 2: Commissioner of the Public Employment includes basically three extra days
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  Speaker 2: off Now at the moment, if a public servant works
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  Speaker 2: in an agency that shuts down over Christmas, then they
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  Speaker 2: need to take basically, there's usually two or three days
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  Speaker 2: in that period between Christmas and New Year that are
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  Speaker 2: not public holidays that they need to take his annual leave.
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  Speaker 2: Now that in the past has come out of their
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  Speaker 2: six weeks of annual leave entitlements. But under this new offer,
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  Speaker 2: they'll basically be given paid leave to those days as well,
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  Speaker 2: so essentially gives them an extra three days of paid
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  Speaker 2: annual leave that would be taken over that period. Now,
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  Speaker 2: if you're in a job where your agency doesn't close
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  Speaker 2: down over that period, you would get the three days
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  Speaker 2: to be able to take the three days somewhere else. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Like, the thing that gets me about this is I
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  Speaker 1: get that it's their leave days, so it's not additional
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  Speaker 1: cash in hand end, but you know, essentially, I guess
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  Speaker 1: you'd say that it is in other ways if you
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  Speaker 1: you know, however you look at it. But the thing
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  Speaker 1: that gets me is, you know they're saying, all right,
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  Speaker 1: well there's a pay freeze, and yes, there is a
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  Speaker 1: pay freeze, only one thousand dollars then annual bonus, but
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  Speaker 1: some of these other things are ultimately going to cost
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the taxpayer ongoing.
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  Speaker 2: Well they are, aren't they. I mean, you know, if
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  Speaker 2: your average tother servant, you know, one hundred thousand dollars
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  Speaker 2: a year, I think that would work out at about
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  Speaker 2: twelve hundred bucks ahead extra. And you know, these are
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  Speaker 2: part of the negotiations obviously, and they're obviously of the
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  Speaker 2: belief that they need to offer something to get the
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  Speaker 2: unions over the table given that that pay free is
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  Speaker 2: in place. They're interesting on the pay free. If we
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  Speaker 2: know that it came from the recommendation from the Langland Report,
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  Speaker 2: the government's actually gone further than what that recommendation is.
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  Speaker 2: So the recommendation in the Langland report was basically a
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  Speaker 2: thousand dollars pay rise across the So you know that
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  Speaker 2: means if you're in a low paying, a forty thousand
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  Speaker 2: dollars a year job, you get a two and a
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  Speaker 2: half percent pay rise. But if you're you know, one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty grand a year, well then you know
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  Speaker 2: it's less than a month percent. But what the government's
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  Speaker 2: actually done is said no, we're not going to do that,
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  Speaker 2: where instead just going to pay a one thousand dollars
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  Speaker 2: cash bonus. Now, I think there's some angst about that
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  Speaker 2: because it means that you know, it doesn't even accumulate,
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  Speaker 2: you don't see we're on. I think there's people have
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  Speaker 2: got a few issues, but I would say that there's
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  Speaker 2: been a fair bit of reaction already to the story
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  Speaker 2: this morning. Yeah, and quite a bit of anger coming
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  Speaker 2: from some areas. I think most of the frustration comes
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  Speaker 2: from people in the private sector to have a difficulty,
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  Speaker 2: whether they're a business owner and they have retaining staff,
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  Speaker 2: or they're a worker in the private sector who don't
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  Speaker 2: get touch generous entitlements. So I think there are people
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  Speaker 2: who believe, well, you know, particularly those owners, they think,
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  Speaker 2: how am I going to hang on to much staff?
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  Speaker 1: That's right?
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  Speaker 2: You know, people in the public service are getting you know,
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  Speaker 2: effectively six and a half weeks and you will leave,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and I can really only offer four.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and this is the thing, you know, if you
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  Speaker 1: are someone who's trying to you know, trying to employ someone,
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  Speaker 1: it's a very difficult kind of giesh I suppose if
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  Speaker 1: you're trying to draw someone across from the public service
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  Speaker 1: into the private sector. So it's a difficulty in that way.
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  Speaker 1: But then you know, you think to yourself, goodness, may
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  Speaker 1: I don't get that much leave every year, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I do a lucky.
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  Speaker 2: You, although they catch me and that is that I
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  Speaker 2: have to work every public holidays. Ye well, which is
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  Speaker 2: fair enough. Yeah well, and this.
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  Speaker 1: Is the thing. But I think from you know, from
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  Speaker 1: the perspective as well of a lot of those that
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  Speaker 1: work in the private sector. They've been so heavily hit
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  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years as a result of COVID.
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  Speaker 1: You know, they've had their hours reduced, they've had various
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  Speaker 1: different things that they've had to deal with. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you've got those let's like we've spoken about earlier this morning.
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  Speaker 1: We spoke to Daniel Rotchford from Tourism in Central Australia
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  Speaker 1: talking about some of those businesses barely able to open
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  Speaker 1: their doors right now and barely able to continue on.
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  Speaker 1: And then you've sort of got public servants getting an
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  Speaker 1: additional for three days of leave.
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  Speaker 2: It.
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  Speaker 1: I guess it's just that disparity, you know, within the community.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. True, And you know you're going to remember the
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  Speaker 2: reason that this restriction on pay rise was putting place
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  Speaker 2: in the first place, because of concern about our growing debt.
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  Speaker 2: At the time, that debt was at about five billion dollars.
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  Speaker 2: Now it's just more than nine billion dollars. But that's
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  Speaker 2: the issue, and that's one of the questions I have
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  Speaker 2: about what's happening is these negotiations, is that all of
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  Speaker 2: these things that have been offered, the extra leave, et cetera,
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  Speaker 2: once they're put in place, there'll be no winding that back,
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  Speaker 2: not like you know in four years time when an
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  Speaker 2: extragotiations come around or say oh, okay, well now we're
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  Speaker 2: going to give you two and a half percent pay
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  Speaker 2: rode the year, but we're going to take those three
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  Speaker 2: days an once they're Once they're in, I think they're
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  Speaker 2: in forever. So you know, I think that there needs
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  Speaker 2: to be a little bit of caution about how these
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  Speaker 2: negotiations go. I think there's another point that I was making.
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  Speaker 2: You know, whatever these sort of issues are raised, there's
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  Speaker 2: always that question comes up, well what about you know,
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  Speaker 2: what about the police, what about the nurses? And I
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  Speaker 2: think there's a valid argument. So I say that nurses
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  Speaker 2: and police, particularly given how they've had to work during
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  Speaker 2: the pandemic, you know, should perhaps be exempt from the
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  Speaker 2: pay frees. I spoke to Katatcha earlier this week from
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  Speaker 2: the Australian Nursing the Refederation and they spoken several times,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, she was raising the issue that Nancy's
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  Speaker 2: pay frees is applied to nurses. There could be a
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  Speaker 2: situation where the stuff shortage that we've got at the moment,
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  Speaker 2: it's even worse in twelve months time. And you do
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  Speaker 2: have to remember that, you know, nurses in the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 2: you know, work a lot harder.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this is the thing, you know, And that's right.
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  Speaker 1: She was talking to us about the patient care of ratio.
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  Speaker 1: I think it is and how here in the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the number of patients that a nurse has
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  Speaker 1: to care for on a shift is much greater than
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  Speaker 1: what it is if you're working in another state. So yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I agree with you. You know, when you're talking about
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  Speaker 1: those frontline workers, I can understand, you know, why they
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  Speaker 1: need a pay increase. Even when you talk about the police.
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  Speaker 1: Their jobs have changed so much over the last couple
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  Speaker 1: of years, dealing with COVID and with their every day
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  Speaker 1: things that they would usually be dealing with. So I
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  Speaker 1: do think that there is certainly, you know, some room
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  Speaker 1: for adjustment. I suppose you'd say.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and it will be interesting to see where
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  Speaker 2: these graduations go. I think they've got a fair a
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  Speaker 2: bit of work there before they get it over the line,
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  Speaker 2: because there's quite a bit of anger I think within
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  Speaker 2: the public service and from the unions about this prospect
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  Speaker 2: of the paper eason. It seems to me that they're
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  Speaker 2: going to plant.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and you know, I've got a message that's
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  Speaker 1: just come through here. Every single one of my best
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  Speaker 1: workers I've lost to public service jobs. Their reasons are
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  Speaker 1: much more paid holiday slash six slash, family stretch slash,
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  Speaker 1: stress leave, easier work in air conditioning, a job for
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  Speaker 1: life where they feel that they can never be sacked,
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  Speaker 1: and paid maternity leave. That's one of the messages that's
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  Speaker 1: come through this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting that you say that, Katie. A couple
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  Speaker 2: of the other things that are being offered. One is
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  Speaker 2: no involuntary redundanty, which fits there as well, And another
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  Speaker 2: one is the doubling of superannuation for women on maternity lead,
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  Speaker 2: which I don't actually think is a bad thing. I think, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you know, women they obviously take time off work for children,
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  Speaker 2: et cetera, and then end up in a sort of
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  Speaker 2: inferior position office men when it comes to superannuations. I
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  Speaker 2: think a lot of people would be on board with that,
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  Speaker 2: but you do have to feel for the private sector.
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  Speaker 2: And if you go and read the Angle report, that's
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  Speaker 2: one of the key issues in raises when it talks
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  Speaker 2: about public chector use that disparity with the private checker
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  Speaker 2: and how much more difficult it's making for the private
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  Speaker 2: checker to attract and retainment.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and this person signed off by saying my
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: staff were paid more than me. I cannot compete with
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: the government perks, you know, like that's the thing.
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  Speaker 2: For some people.
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  Speaker 1: It's bloody hard. Oh well, it's an interesting one, Matt Cunningham.
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  Speaker 1: We will have to leave it there. Are we going
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  Speaker 1: to see you tomorrow for the week? That was?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good stuff mate.
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  Speaker 1: Well we'll catch you tomorrow morning, thanks Matte. Yeah, that's
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  Speaker 1: Matt Cunningham there from Sky News.