Last night the government made a new wage offer via this letter as a part of an attempt to finalise the public sector wages agreement negotiations.

It’s a new three year offer with annual wage increases of 3.25%, 3% and 3% with the following dollar increases for members (the one-off payments are variously described as cost of living or retention payments):

• $500 increase for TSSA Band 3 and below to be added to the base rate of pay

• $1500 pro rata one-off cost of living and retention payment to TSSA Band 6 and below

• $1000 low income payment, not included in the base rate of pay, or TSSA Band 3 and below

• $1000 pro rata one-off payment for Band 7 and above

This means wage increases are variable depending on where you sit in the structure. This is disappointing as we never want to pick winners or losers as everyone’s doing it tough right now.

We’re doing further analysis of the numbers and will share that with you once that’s done.

The government also outlined several additional conditions that were included in the previous offer.

Agreements aren’t just about wage increases, conditions are extremely important too, so we’ve agreed to a further two weeks of intensive negotiations around these key conditions. To use the government’s own words, we’ll engage in ‘good faith negotiations’ with them.

We know how important this agreement is for you and the services you provide to the community in this volatile economic and service delivery environment, and during these negotiations we’ll get a better idea of whether we can achieve the task you’ve set for us to help you cope with the pressures you’re dealing with right now.

We’ve already lined up membership meetings so, once negotiations are finalised, we can come straight back to you for a decision on where we go from there. You’ll already have, or will soon get, info about a meeting close to you.