Hon Martin Aldridge questions the Minister for Industrial Relations regarding the CPSU/CSA wage agreement, its costing, and impact on the state budget and departmental budgets, given conflicting statements about adherence to the State wages policy. The Minister's response clarifies the agreement's compliance and budgetary impact.

AnsweredQoN 2699Legislative Council
Asked
19 November 2019
Portfolio
Industrial Relations

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Minister's media statement of 19 August 2019 entitled
"CPSU/CSA accept Government’s State wages policy", and I ask: (a) how has the Minister drawn the conclusion that the
CPSU/CSA has accepted the State wages policy when their media statement of same
date claims they have "…. broken the government’s wages policy"; (b) how many employees by headcount and FTE are subject to
the agreement; (c) has Treasury costed the impact of the final agreement; (d) if yes to (c), will the Minister please provide the detailed costing of
the agreement; (e) will the financial impact of the agreement exceed what
has been provided for in the 2019-20 State budget; and (f) where costs exceed the $1,000 per employee State wages
policy in paragraph 2 of the policy, paragraph 6 anticipates these costs being
met by relevant departments and organisations, what is the cost impact expected
on departments and organisations in meeting the expense of the agreement?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
4 December 2019
Responded by
Minister for Regional Development representing the Minister for Industrial Relations
Response time
9 days
(a)        The Public Sector Wages Policy Statement 2019 (Wages Policy) requires increases in industrial agreement wages for full time equivalent (FTE) public sector employees be limited to $1,000 per annum. This was the salary outcome negotiated for the Public Sector CSA Agreement 2019 (the Agreement).
(b)       At the time the Agreement was drafted (June 2019), it was estimated that it covered 29,918 employees and 26,713 FTE. Data subsequently provided by the Public Sector Commission shows that, as at June 2019, the Agreement covered 30,767 employees and 27,399 FTE.
(c)        Yes.
(d)       The Department of Treasury (Treasury) advises that there is no impact on net debt and the operating balance over the forward estimates beyond the 2019 State Budget, as the application of Wages Policy was already incorporated in those figures.
(e)        See (d).
(f)        Treasury advises that the cost impact for employees covered by the Agreement for any agency will be met within approved budgets.

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