PSA MEDIA RELEASE
October 13, 2009

Justice Ministry misrepresents PSA position in pay dispute
 
“If the Justice Ministry is serious about wanting to achieving a fair settlement in a pay dispute with more than 1700 of its staff it should stop misrepresenting the position taken by the staff and their union, the PSA,” says PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff.

The Ministry has issued a media release falsely stating that the PSA is claiming in excess of $100 million over three years to settle the dispute.

“Let me make it clear, the $100 million dollar figure has come from the Ministry of Justice, not the PSA.”

“What the PSA said was that the Ministry is paying its staff on average 6.3% below the public service median pay rate.”

“The Ministry responded by saying that to address that level of underpayment it would cost at least $100 million over three years.”

“So the $100 million figure is the Ministry’s estimate of how much it’s underpaying its staff.’’

“The PSA has not put a figure on how much it’s seeking in a pay rise for the 1700 Justice staff it represents.”

“We’ve simply identified how much the Ministry of Justice is underpaying its staff and over the last three and half months have been trying to negotiate with the Ministry how we close that pay gap.”

“The problem we have is that the Justice Ministry is refusing to engage in a meaningful pay negotiation.”

“It continues to rely on an unfair and unjust pay system that has created the underpayment the staff and the PSA is trying to address.”

“The Ministry says it has offered pay increases from July 2010 through this unfair and unjust pay system.

“This would mean no pay rises for any staff until July next year and then only selected staff would get an unspecified increase.”

“The reality is that Justice has allocated only $5 million for these selected pay increases next year when the Ministry has admitted that it’s underpaying its staff by a lot more than that.”

“The Ministry has also stated that the PSA is seeking a pay structure in which it would have no control over future pay costs.”

“What the PSA is actually seeking is to be able to sit down with the Ministry and negotiate fair and sustainable pay increases for its members working at Justice.”

“The Ministry would retain control over its wage costs because it would have to agree with any pay increases that arose from those negotiations.”

“This is not rocket science. It’s actually how unions and workers throughout the country  negotiate fair and sustainable pay rises on a regular basis,” says Richard Wagstaff.

ends
 

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