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The Berejiklian government says it does not support a pay rise for MPs.Credit:Getty Images

The government's whip Adam Crouch has written to the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal,saying the"NSW government does not support any increase to the basic salary and additional entitlements of Members of Parliament for the financial year 2020-21".

"COVID-19 has touched every aspect of our society and affected every sector and industry,"Mr Crouch's letter,dated May 21,says.

"Of the 4.1 million people employed in NSW,90 per cent are employed in the private sector and many of these people are facing the prospect of massive pay cuts and job losses."

Mr Crouch's letter said even if the tribunal recommended increases,government MPs would be instructed"by the Premier,Deputy Premier and Treasurer"to reject it.

Labor's treasury spokesman Walt Secord said:"We are very clear. No pay rises for MPs and no pay cuts to nurses,teachers,child protection workers and hospital cleaners."

Wages issues could be a major industrial headache for the government,with the teachers'and nurses'unions not ruling out action if wages are frozen in a bid to protect the budget.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottetrevealed last month he had been working on a cabinet proposal to stop public servants'pay rises for 12 months.

At the time,Mr Perrottet stressed that frontline healthcare workers were exempt from the plan.

But teachers have also argued they should not miss out on a pay rise.

The NSW Teachers'Federation last week warned it was prepared to take"whatever action is necessary"to ensure the government upheld an agreement to give teachers and principals a 2.28 per cent pay rise in January.

The teachers'union's two-year award agreement was struck with the Berejiklian government last year and approved by the Industrial Relations Commission in March.

It emerged last week that NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller offered not to accept an $87,000 pay rise but the NSW government pressed ahead with it anyway.

Commissioner Fuller wrote to the government saying he was prepared to withdraw the request given the coronavirus crisis.

But Police Minister David Elliott and Premier Gladys Berejiklian went ahead and sent the direction to the NSW Remuneration Tribunal.

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