NSW railway, energy and health workers will push the Minns government for pay rises of up to 8 per cent in a wave of new negotiations over the next three months, and union officials hope they will trigger more increases across the country.the state’s railways, a cohort of five unions led by Unions NSW and representing railway workers is preparing to hammer out a new agreement asking for an increase of about 5 per cent.
Workers at Endeavour Energy, an energy retailer and producer which is 49 per cent owned by the NSW government, walked off the job last week and last month temporarily in planned industrial action to press their case for a one-year pay increase of 8 per cent and subsequent increases over the life of the three-year agreement.
“Past agreements have given workers below CPI, and this is about catch up and getting members in line with cost of living and making up for years of being underpaid,” Mr Hicks said.“This is also a private enterprise which handed their executives a 12 per cent increase in one year, and then they offer the same to their workers over three. It doesn’t work.”
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has said the government’s preference for individual sector agreements over the wages cap will improve productivity, recruitment and retention by stopping a flow of talent to cheaper states.