The wages of South Australian public servants will increase by 7.5 per cent over three years under an enterprise agreement approved by the Industrial Relations Commission last week.
The South Australian Public Sector Wages Parity Enterprise Agreement: Salaried 2014 guarantees a 2.5 per cent wage increase in October 2014, October 2015 and October 2016.
A middle-level (first year, AHP-3) allied health employee in the public service, for example, will have their annual salary rise from $88,288 from October this year to $90,495 from October 2015 and $92,757 from October 2016.
The 2.5 per cent annual increase is just above the current inflation rate of 2.3 per cent (in the September quarter) and equal to the average inflation rate of 2.5 per cent over the past three years.
“It’s a fair and reasonable outcome,” Public Service Association Senior Industrial Officer Josie Barbaro told InDaily.
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The enterprise agreement also ends the era of the so-called public service “departure lounge” – where employees declared excess to requirements could continue to be paid full wage without finding new employment, for years on end.
As InDaily foreshadowed in September, the new deal caps the period a public servant can remain excess at 12 months, after which they will be forced to take redundancy.
Once an employee is informed in writing that their role no-longer exists and is declared excess, a voluntary separation package must be offered to the employee within the first three months.
If they do not take the package within that period, any subsequent offer will be reduced by 50 per cent (after three months but before six months following the declaration) then 75 per cent (after six months but before nine months following the declaration).
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“Where an employee declared excess has been unsuccessful in obtaining an alternative ongoing position in the SA Public Sector after 12 months (since written advice of being declared excess), they may be separated with a suitable payment,” the agreement reads.
The agreement, expected to work in tandem with this draft determination of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment, will ensure that if an excess employee of a particular department cannot be found work in that department, the Commissioner will be charged with helping the employee find a suitable position within the entire public service.
The Commissioner will also be required to ensure there are no excess employees which could fill vacant positions within the service, before vacancies are advertised more widely.
Barbaro said the change would deliver significant benefits for public servants in rural and regional areas, “where there may otherwise be a limited number of jobs in a particular agency”.
“The public sector as a whole may have a significant number of jobs (vacant) at that location,” Barbaro said.
Barbaro said between 200 and 300 positions are declared excess in the South Australian public service each year, but there is an overall turnover of around 7,000 employees each year. This means it would be near impossible for an employer to establish that no appropriate vacancies exist across the entire public service for an employee declared excess.
“What the enterprise agreement did was introduce a robust process to manage any situations where a person may be declared excess, and to the extent that we’ve been able to achieve that, that’s a good outcome,” she said.
“Despite what some in the community would believe, this agreement has not removed tenure.
“Tenure still exists, but there is now a robust process to deal with (excess employees).
“What members have said and have endorsed through voting, that when seen as a total package, then the enterprise agreement that was voted on provides a fair and reasonable outcome.”
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