The state government faces an onslaught of industrial unrest from essential workers stuck under its 2.5 per cent public sector wage cap;from nurses,paramedics,bus and train drivers,with teachers the latest to walk off the job in a planned strike next week.
Unions say the surge in inflation leaves the premier no choice but to drop the public sector wage cap,or risk an exodus of critical workers to other states.
As the largest employer in NSW,the premier on Wednesday said he accepted his responsibility to lead by example and provide higher wages,but said workers would have to wait until the state budget on June 21.
Loading
“There are issues across all the unions in relation to those specific issues. And we are working through them,and we’ll have one announcement ... we’ll resolve them in the budget,” he said.
“What I believe we’ll come up with is a fair and reasonable approach. It will certainly be nation-leading,as we have in the past.”
He added that public sector pay in NSW had remained above inflation for the past decade.