The industrial dispute, or more correctly disputes, in the ACT are reaching crisis. The disputes are not so much about pay and conditions, but about power and the whole public-sector industrial-relations culture. On one side the Liberal Government is determined to break-up the monolithic approach of the previous Labor Government which was to deal with the whole public-sector as one and make wage rises and changes in conditions across the board. The Liberal Government wants industrial relations to take place agency by agency. Moreover, it wants pay rises to be paid for by efficiencies, rather than by Budget allocation. There are more efficiencies and trade-offs if practices in each agency are looked at rather than looking at only practices across the service.
Over the past month or so the Government has tried to break the ranks of the 12 unions with which it is dealing by offering separate pay rises to separate sections of the public sector. The unions have rejected each offer, and clearly the strategy has failed. The union leaders obviously feel they have greater bargaining power if they act collectively (because they can cause greater disruption and revenue loss) and have persuaded their membership of that. Employees, however, might get higher pay rises if they dealt on an agency basis because more money would be available than through the Budget alone.
This dispute is more about power than pay. It is about union power and government power. And Canberrans are caught in between. During the dispute, Canberrans are inconvenienced by bans and after it, Canberra ratepayers will suffer if the Government gives in and provides pay rises out of the Budget.
Union leaders would much prefer less pay among more workers than more pay among fewer workers. That way they get more members and their jobs are more comfortable. They would also prefer to use bans and pressure on the Government so the money for pay rises comes out of rates or other government revenue or borrowings, rather than through increased productivity. This was evidenced late last week when the Government offered a 9.85 per cent pay increase … more than the original union demand … but it was knocked back by the unions because of the way it was to come about, not because it was too little.
The Government, on the other hand, wants to deliver a low-tax environment to business and voters and is determined that pay rises be funded by efficiencies. The Government is not against higher wages, but wants them earned through productivity rather than blackmail. That said, the plethora of government offers and its shifting ground indicate a certain greenness in its industrial-relations skill.
None the less, the Chief Minister, Kate Carnell, appears to have general public support for her stand. An opinion poll taken during the strike indicates she has the highest approval rating of the nine MLAs polled and has lost only 2 points of overall voter approval since taking government. However, the same poll indicated that her support among ACT Government employees was weakest.
She should stick to her demand for an agency-by-agency approach, for productivity trade-offs and not give in to the easy way of paying for pay rises through the Budget, for which we all ultimately suffer. Workers should get higher pay for better work. Genuinely representative unions would encourage that approach.