A key element of the Northern Territory Government's budget repair plan is in limbo after a union said it had received legal advice that public service executives cannot be forced to sign pay-freeze agreements.
The Government had hoped to save $25 million over three years by freezing the salaries of 600 executives and 25 politicians.
But the Australian Education Union advised its members not to accept amendments to existing contracts.
"Such a change can't be made without the consent of the employee," the union's NT president Jarvis Ryan said.
"So the Government can't unilaterally freeze the wages of someone on a contract."
He said almost 90 school principals on executive contracts had received letters from the education department, asking that they "agree to vary their current contract provisions" by the end of the month.
"From my discussions I can tell you it's left quite a lot of principals quite angry and upset," Mr Ryan said.
"We are talking about people who have put in many decades of service."
Manison pledges to implement freeze
Public servants on executive contracts receive between $192,000 and $391,000 per year.
Earlier this week, the Chief Minister would not rule out sacking those that refused to accept the pay freeze proposal.
The Northern Territory Police Association said around 20 police on executive contracts would be impacted by the freeze.
"The NTPA is incredibly disappointed to hear inferred pressure, or the expectation that police on executive contracts should simply accept this pay freeze, when there are legally binding documents in place."
Today, Treasurer Nicole Manison said the Government remained resolute in its adoption of the recommendations of John Langoulant's budget repair plan, which included the pay freeze.
"We are going to implement this," she said.
"We accepted this recommendation and we expect executives to comply."
Opposition questions process
Ms Manison said the Government "sought legal advice on the matter and continues discussions with the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment".
Opposition Deputy Leader Lia Finocchiaro questioned the Government's process in trying to implement the pay freeze.
"[This Government] makes an announcement that it will institute pay freezes for executive contract officers, only assumedly to realise that they can't actually do that, hence why they are now saying it's a voluntary pay freeze, only later on to say everyone will take this pay freeze," she said.
"It makes absolutely no sense and we're not sure whether or not the Government is even able to do this."
