Smithfield public servants say ‘no’ to wage reform

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FRONTLINE public servants confronted Smithfield State Liberal MP Andrew Rohan at his office last week urging him to vote against a bill that would give the State Government unprecedented powers to slash wages and conditions.

Firefighters and nurses led a delegation of public sector workers demanding Mr Rohan cross the floor on the controversial wages reform policy calling it the biggest attack on public sector workers in a century.

Under the policy, which will give the government the power to stipulate wages and conditions for public servants, wage rises above 2.5 per cent would be paid only after they were matched by employee-related savings.

A Smithfield firefighter, who did not want to be named, said he was disgusted that power would be taken away from the industrial relations commission.

“It’s not right. We have all got families and with cost of living pressures it is hard enough in Sydney without them stealing money away from us,” he said.

Mr Rohan blamed the previous government’s waste for the policy and promised nobody would be worse off under the new laws.

“I will be taking your concerns to the minister,” he said. “We inherited problems from the previous government. We will honour all the agreements and no one will be worse off. The Labor government sacked many nurses and we are providing more nurses. We are a responsible government, we will work through and fix the problems.”

A nurse at the protest, who also did not want to be named, said a possible deal between the government and cross-bench MPs who hold the balance of power exempting police and council workers was completely unreasonable.

“It’s definitely a backward step. All it does is take away everybody’s rights,” she said.

The upper house debate resumed yesterday after a marathon four-day session failed to reach a result. On Saturday