JULY- SEPTEMBER 2020 PUBLIC SERVICE ASSOCIATION OF NSW/CPSU NSW POST OFFICE APPROVED PP 255003/01563 ISSN 1030-0740 FEATURE Low fees and strong long-term performance, so our members retire with more The right support and advice to help you feel future ready An industry fund first state super 2 RED TAPE July-September 2020 Consider our PDS at firststatesuper.com.au to decide if this is right for you before making a decision. Issued by FSS Trustee Corporation ABN 11 118 202 672, AFSL 293340, the trustee of the First State Superannuation Scheme ABN 53 226 460 365. FSS0055_Ad Trade Publication_210x275mm+5.indd 1 5/4/19 3:26 pm JULY- SEPTEMBER 2020 CONTENTS Low fees and From the General Secretary 04 Celebrating our Champions of the State News strong long-term 05 The big issues affecting your workplace From the President 06 The country needs a pick up performance, PSA HEAD OFFICE From the Assistant 160 Clarence Street, Sydney NSW 08 General Secretary GPO Box 3365, so our members Australia’s tax minimisation problem Sydney NSW 2001 12 T 1300 772 679 Champions of the State F (02) 9262 1623 26 Our members and their essential work W www.psa.asn.au retire with more www.cpsunsw.org.au Matters of life and death E [email protected] 34 The Department of Health saves a state [email protected] A sick system Managing Editor 36 How to wean universities off foreign cash Stewart Little, General Secretary No time for wage cuts Issue Editor 38 Austerity will hurt us all Jason Mountney Art Direction Women at Work Mine Konakci Enquiries Women working during COVID-19 40 PSA Communications Unit 22 1300 772 679 Work Health and Safety Membership 42 Keeping safe in a pandemic T 1300 772 679 The right support and advice to help you feel future ready E [email protected] Printer Spotpress Pty Ltd 24-26 Lilian Fowler Place Marrickville NSW 2204 [email protected] An industry fund first state super 36 All members of CPSU NSW are also members of the Public Service Association. The PSA is the associated body that manages and resources CPSU NSW. July-September 2020 RED TAPE 3 Consider our PDS at firststatesuper.com.au to decide if this is right for you before making a decision. Issued by FSS Trustee Corporation ABN 11 118 202 672, AFSL 293340, the trustee of the First State Superannuation Scheme ABN 53 226 460 365. FSS0055_Ad Trade Publication_210x275mm+5.indd 1 5/4/19 3:26 pm FEATUREOPINION From the General Secretary Stewart Little staff, as well as those working in prisons, The State Treasurer is determined to deny has lifted the public’s view of the public our members the already-capped 2.5 per cent CHANGES AHEAD sector. Society saw that it could function pay rise this year. So much for thanking the just fine when hedge fund managers, essential workers of NSW for labouring on – AND WE ARE corporate consultants and the like stayed during the pandemic. home, but public services, including The State and Federal Governments want many PSA/CPSU NSW Champions of the to sacrifice the work our members do in READY FOR THEM State, were required to roll on throughout planning and the environment at the altar lockdowns. of infrastructure. This year marks the beginning However, there will always be opponents Universities, having had their of a well-funded public sector, and the dependence on overseas student income of the PSA’s Champions of the pandemic may give them a smokescreen exposed, want Professional Staff to take State campaign, where we look for vicious changes to the working lives of the hit with lower wages and job cuts. at how much NSW depends on PSA/CPSU NSW members. For your union, these coming attacks The virus may see improvements mean we can’t relax and bask in the glory our amazing members. in Workplace Health and Safety and of praise for our work fighting pandemics, nd in a year opening with working-from-home flexibility, but in fires and floods. The speed at which bushfires, then morphing its determination to “snap back” the neoliberals became fans of the public into a global pandemic, economy, the Federal Government may sector can reverse just as quickly once the the role of public use COVID-19 to justify an attack on virus is defeated. employees has never workers’ rights. For our members, this means talking been so prominently Federal Industrial Relations Minister to your workmates who have not yet in the spotlight. Christian Porter has already looked joined the PSA/CPSU NSW. The more Worldwide, the reaction to the virus into renegotiating enterprise bargaining members we have, the stronger our voice. Afrom government employees such as agreements; and with a bigger pool of And, as has been proven this year, the nurses, doctors, teachers and school unemployed labour, the workers’ position stronger our public sector, the stronger may be weaker. our society. ROB AND DOM – THE FLOWERPOT MEN overnment is all about Fortunately, the decision didn’t last Instead of cutting wages and wasting priorities. When the very long once it became public. The money on office aesthetics, the NSW NSW Government ABC ran the story and I spoke on air to Government should offer certainty to its announced it wanted 2GB’s Ray Hadley. He was shocked, too. workforce by guaranteeing existing jobs to freeze public sector Before the day was out, Minister Stokes and adding new ones. wages, it became clear had done a backflip. the welfare of its To have just one building prepared employees is not its priority. Apparently to drop more than a million on fiddle Gthere are better things to spend money on. leaf figs and peace lilies is extraordinary. So I was stunned to learn the NSW But this is typical of a government that Government planned to spend $1.2 seems ideologically opposed to the very million on indoor plants at a time when idea of a public service. They would public servants are being told to tighten rather freeze wages than find other their belts and cop a pay cut. savings. The hypocrisy was breathtaking. Here The phenomenal work by public we have Treasurer Dominic Perrottet sector workers in NSW Health is the and Planning Minster Rob Stokes saying reason restrictions can be eased and the there is no money for public servants economy started up again. while signing contracts for million dollar The most powerful stimulus the NSW vertical gardens. Government has is its own workforce. 4 RED TAPE July-September 2020 YOUR UNION THE SALARIES CASE: PSA THERE TO FIGHT The NSW Government thanks essential workers by denying them a pay rise. he Government’s predictable response to COVID-19 – to cut wages – was met with resistance from the PSA and other public sector unions. After weeks of platitudes about the essential work done by public servants throughout NSW, the State Government Tannounced planned 2.5 per cent pay rises would not go ahead unless they had already been agreed. The PSA had already negotiated a pay increase for 2020-21 for staff in Transport. Members in schools received an increase thanks to the PSA’s 2019 Pay Equity case. The CPSU NSW also won several rises for members covered by the Fair Work Commission. However, despite the case for a 2.5 per cent pay rise for most PSA members under the Crown Employees Award being lodged in December last year, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet announced in May that wages would be frozen. This would also affect other non-PSA employees, including police, nurses and teachers. All these workers, and many supporting the bill was a broad mix of supporters; PSA/CPSU NSW members, had continued to work One Nation; the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers; during the shutdown created by the COVID-19 the Animal Justice Party; and former Green Justin pandemic. Field. Only Christian Democrat veteran Fred Nile Not happy with that, the Treasurer also voted with the Government to freeze pay. mandated that public servants receiving pay This win on behalf of public servants and their increases this year would have their pay frozen in hard work throughout NSW at this important subsequent years. time saw the case for a 2.5 per cent pay rise return The freeze came hot on the heels of to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC). substantial pay rises for senior executives, It remains a tough fight with the Government including Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, continuing to try and enforce their discredited THE FREEZE whose annual salary increased by $87,000. policy through arbitration in the IRC. CAME HOT ON Rather than put the pay freeze to a vote in There the Government combined the pay cases parliament, the Liberal/National Government of a number of public servants, including nurses, THE HEELS OF instead introduced a regulation outlining its to try and stymie increases in the one go. SUBSTANTIAL plans to leave wages at the same level as the year “The MPs saw that our members were there before. A media backlash appeared to catch the in schools, there in gaols, there at the Service PAY RISES Government by surprise, with the Treasurer then NSW desk, there in National Parks, keeping NSW FOR SENIOR talking about one-off payments of $1000 and a running,” said PSA General Secretary Stewart Little. no-redundancies policy. “Other members were working just as hard for the EXECUTIVES It is important to note there was no formal people of NSW from home as those in the office.” announcement about the $1000 one-off payment Media support for public-sector pay rises came or the no-redundancies policy, just sound bites in from a variety of sources, including normally the media.