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Speaker 1: Well, we know that four hundred public servants have been

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Speaker 1: sacked because they refuse to get the COVID JAP and

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Speaker 1: the Chief Minister wants to cash in using the savings

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Speaker 1: to get public servants to support the four year wage freeze.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is Kay Densley, the

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Speaker 1: CPSU NTI Regional Secretary. Good morning to UK.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Now k four.

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Speaker 1: Hundred public servants out of their jobs. The Chief Minister

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Speaker 1: says that it's going to have no impact on service delivery.

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Speaker 1: How is it possible that four hundred public servants are

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Speaker 1: being lost and it's not even going to have an

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Speaker 1: impact on that service delivery?

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Speaker 2: Well, let's hope it doesn't. But all those people actually

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Speaker 2: did a job, and so you know who's going to

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Speaker 2: do that work if they're not going to be replaced.

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Speaker 2: We still don't know the figures about where in agency

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Speaker 2: is what these people did. Will received no information from

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Speaker 2: the Commissioner or the government about this, so we'll be

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Speaker 2: asking questions.

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Speaker 1: Okay, how do you think that, I mean, how do

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Speaker 1: you think that the Chief Minister can actually say it's

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Speaker 1: not going to impact service delivery when the unions don't

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Speaker 1: even know what jobs are being lost.

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Speaker 2: Well, either he knows something we don't, or you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm really unsure. So we're actually meeting with the Commissioner

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Speaker 2: for Public Employment this afternoon. We got an invitation late yesterday,

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Speaker 2: so we'll be asking her that question and hopefully she

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Speaker 2: can provide us with a breakdown of where these jobs are.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that it is going to impact service delivery?

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Speaker 2: Well, let's hope not. There's a lot of people out

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Speaker 2: there during two and three jobs now because vacancy is

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Speaker 2: you know, being left vacant for far too long. So

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Speaker 2: I think that each each agency is going to have

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Speaker 2: to have a look at what services they actually provide

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Speaker 2: and what stuff they have to do that. If this

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Speaker 2: is the.

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Speaker 1: Case, it does obviously mean that there's going to be

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Speaker 1: a thirty million dollar saving, and the Chief Minister wants

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Speaker 1: to use that money to get public servants to support

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Speaker 1: this controversial four year wage freeze. What it's going to mean,

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Speaker 1: from what I can gather, is an increase in that

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Speaker 1: cash bonus from one thousand dollars to four thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: that public servants would receive in the first year of

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Speaker 1: that pay freeze. In lou of course, of a pay

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Speaker 1: rise now they then receive a two thousand dollars annual

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Speaker 1: retention bonus for the subsequent three years. Kay, when did

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Speaker 1: you first learn about this proposal.

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Speaker 2: We first learned about it yesterday morning, just before the

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Speaker 2: Chief Minister sent out an email to all n GPS employees.

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Speaker 2: So it's a welcome change. We've been calling on him

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Speaker 2: to change the wages policy, so that's welcome. It's a

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Speaker 2: pretty big amount of money, but it's still a bonus

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Speaker 2: and it doesn't add to people. Sorry, And we've been

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Speaker 2: receiving feedback from a lot of our members about this,

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Speaker 2: and it's a little bit mixed, but the majority of

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Speaker 2: them are saying that they want to increase to their salary.

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Speaker 1: So they don't want to go down this path of

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Speaker 1: receiving the bonus. They want to stick with the increase

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Speaker 1: to their salary.

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Speaker 2: Well, the Chief Ministers invited the unions to provide alternatives,

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Speaker 2: so we're preparing to do that today to our members,

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Speaker 2: to us them exactly what they want. So obviously members

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Speaker 2: always direct where we go with this. Also, we'll get

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Speaker 2: a formal offer today, I presume from the Commissioner in

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Speaker 2: our meeting, which means that we can actually put that

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Speaker 2: out to members as well. So and we don't know

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Speaker 2: what the changes are to the waste of policy about

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Speaker 2: whether or not the bonuses announced by the Chief Minister

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Speaker 2: will actually be in the wages policy, which or else

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Speaker 2: said will give us room to be able to actually

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Speaker 2: put up proposals.

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Speaker 1: So kay, what kind of proposals are the unions thinking

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Speaker 1: at this point in time?

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Speaker 2: Well, obviously we want a cumulative pay rise and you know,

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Speaker 2: he's given us an envelope of money I guess to

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Speaker 2: work with, and there are some alternatives that we can

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Speaker 2: put out to members and a lot of suggestions for

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Speaker 2: members about how that would work as well. So we're

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Speaker 2: just working on that now.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we are talking about a six thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: improvement for public servants over four years on the government's

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Speaker 1: current current offer. Why is that not good enough?

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Speaker 2: Well, it is, but you know it's a lot of money.

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Speaker 2: It's a bonus though it's taxable, and it doesn't at

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Speaker 2: in four years time, you know, wages and salary are

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Speaker 2: going to be the same again. So Economyss Reserve Bank,

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Speaker 2: everyone seems to be calling out for wages growth and

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Speaker 2: the Chief Minister isn't he wants to freeze wages. So,

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Speaker 2: as I said, we're working on an alternative to send

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Speaker 2: out to members, hopefully today and we'll see what they say.

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Speaker 1: Okay, a lot of people listening this morning are going

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Speaker 1: to be incredibly riled up, feeling as though this is

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Speaker 1: really unfair and that if we've got a thirty million

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Speaker 1: dollar saving that should maybe be going into something like

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Speaker 1: our health system, which is struggling at the moment. Are

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Speaker 1: public servants just being greedy?

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Speaker 2: I don't think so. Public servants have been doing a lot,

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Speaker 2: and it's good that the Chief Minister actually said that

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Speaker 2: during his press conference as well as in the latter

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Speaker 2: that he realizes the additional work that they've been doing,

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Speaker 2: especially in b lieu of the pandemic and lockdowns and

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Speaker 2: lockouts and whatever. So they've been working hard, and you know,

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Speaker 2: they deserve a pay riser, same as everybody else.

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Speaker 1: Aren't the private sector? I mean, aren't the private sector

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Speaker 1: doing a lot and working incredibly hard as well and

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Speaker 1: deserve you know, to see some of those some of

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Speaker 1: those different you know, different areas where we are seeing

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Speaker 1: things fall down a bit, like the health sect. Wouldn't

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Speaker 1: it be a good thing to see that money invested

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Speaker 1: into areas like that which would benefit all territories.

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Speaker 2: Well, previous savings from the public service have gone into

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Speaker 2: those types of tooth the coffers, I guess, so that

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Speaker 2: these things can be provided. So it's good to see

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Speaker 2: that it's going back in the public service.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: I remember how many public servants we have, and they're

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Speaker 2: spending power in the community and the money that they

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Speaker 2: give to local businesses. So what the payprees does is

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Speaker 2: basically inhibit that and make them think about where they

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Speaker 2: spend their money. So you know, it's not a matter

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Speaker 2: of them sort of holding it away. They're the ones

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Speaker 2: that are keeping the economy going and growing, and that's

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Speaker 2: what we want in the territory.

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Speaker 1: Okay. One of the things that we had been told

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Speaker 1: by the Chief Ministers sort of time and time again,

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Speaker 1: after that Langlent report came out looking at the different

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Speaker 1: savings that needed to happen in the Northern Territory. We

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Speaker 1: were told that, you know, he did not want to

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Speaker 1: see cuts to the public service. But now it seems

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Speaker 1: like it's a total about face. I know that these

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Speaker 1: four hundred people have obviously chosen not to have the vaccine,

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Speaker 1: but are you sort of quite surprised by the way

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Speaker 1: that this has now changed in the last couple of years.

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Speaker 2: I'm not surprised, but Langoland in the report there that

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Speaker 2: was the chu moltive's pay rights, it was a thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars k motive and it's the same sort of report

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Speaker 2: that he did for Western Australia, and that's what happened

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Speaker 2: to the public service there. They got a thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: a year that was c motive. That's a lot different

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Speaker 2: than a thousand dollar bonus or four and two thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars bonus that's taxable. And you know what do people

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Speaker 2: do with that? They either say that payoff their mortgage

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Speaker 2: or their credit card. A pay increase each fortnight is

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Speaker 2: something that increases their spending power in the community.

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Speaker 1: So, Kyle, guess a big question at this point is

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Speaker 1: we know that the announcements obviously come two weeks after

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Speaker 1: the Community in Public sector union members voted overwhelmingly to

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Speaker 1: reject the government's one thousand dollars wage freeze plan. What's

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Speaker 1: going to happen with this latest proposal and with those

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Speaker 1: discussions that are sit to happen today.

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Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't just a CP issue, by the way,

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Speaker 2: it was referring to you. United Workers' Unions, the nurses,

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Speaker 2: the teachers are all involved in the general agreement and

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Speaker 2: the other agreements that were voted down. So today we'll

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Speaker 2: consider what we get as a formal offer. We'll also

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Speaker 2: consider any changes to the wages policy because we haven't

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Speaker 2: seen that neither, and we'll be asking our members about

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Speaker 2: what they think. I know that they're trying to get

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Speaker 2: it out before Christmas, was got four weeks for that.

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Speaker 2: There's some fair work timeframes, for example, a minimum of

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Speaker 2: seven days for an access period and then of course

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Speaker 2: the vote, so time frames are really tight to do that,

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Speaker 2: which is why we're trying to get out to members

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Speaker 2: as soon as possible to us than their.

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Speaker 1: For you, well, Kay Densilely, I appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: I'll be very keen to keep in contact and find

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Speaker 1: out you know, what other offers are put forward or

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Speaker 1: what ends up happening with all of this, and what

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Speaker 1: the members have to say as well. Great, thank you,

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Speaker 1: thank you, appreciate your time.