Does better services mean less wages? | Better State

Does better services mean less wages?
During our last Award negotiations for NSW firefighters, I sat in a meeting with other FBEU officials, and NSW Treasury.
While discussing the limit placed on public sector wages, we floated one of many ideas that firefighters could implement to save the NSW government millions of dollars in school infrastructure through fire prevention. We suggested that a portion of that could be returned in wages.
Treasury officials looked puzzled. They tried to digest this complex idea of workers identifying savings for a proportionate return in wages, and whispered to each other in a frenzied attempt to try and understand this scientific concept.
After some internal debate, the spokeswoman for Treasury promptly told us that Treasury would NOT contemplate this type of approach, and that productivity and cost savings is calculated from wages and conditions, not though changed work practices of Public Servants. She went on to argue that Treasury and the Government expect that type of reform (savings through changed work practices) regardless.
So with the Better State campaigns moving ahead, and politicians debating the various ways of improving health and frontline services, it’s important to remember that the wages and conditions of the workers in these industries need to be protected – because those crunching the numbers don’t think the same as we do !