Photograph: Darren England/AAP
Queensland’s police union chief has conceded a permanent pay increase he approved earlier this week is “grossly inadequate” and “insulting” as officers threaten industrial action and the Crisafulli government faces a protracted battle with key unions over pay deals.
Under a preliminary deal announced this week, police would receive an 8% pay rise over three years, plus two $4,000 bonuses for general duties officers. The state and union had agreed to the offer in principle on Monday night, but it must go to members before it takes effect.
In a press conference with the premier on Tuesday, the Queensland Police Union of Employees’ general president, Shane Prior, described the agreement as the “largest ever” and a product of tough negotiations.
But there has been widespread backlash online – with some officers describing it as the “worst ever”. One officer said they had “seen better negotiations on Facebook Marketplace”. Officers are now flagging widespread industrial action.
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In an email to members on Wednesday, Prior said he still believed the permanent pay offer was “insulting”.
“At the negotiating table the government was completely inflexible with any departure with its wage policy,” he said.
Prior clarified on Thursday that he believed the state wages policy of an 8% pay rise was “grossly inadequate, and it was insulting,” but that he had negotiated an additional $163m in additional payments.
Prior said he had “got the very best deal possible from the government”.
“I always wanted to achieve a greater state wages policy, but there was simply not going to occur. We needed to adapt, and we did,” he said.
The union asked for a 24% pay rise in its log of claim submitted on 1 July, an 8% rise each year for three years.
The state government is now locked in negotiations with several public sector unions, after making a basic universal 8% opening offer.
The Queensland Nurses’ Union has been taking non-strike industrial action since June, while members of the Queensland Teachers’ Union will walk off the job next week, striking for the first time since 2009.
The QTU president, Cresta Richardson, said members would be among the worst-paid teachers in the country by the end of their EBA, after it received an offer of an 8% pay rise over three years.
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli has consistently told media that his government is negotiating in “good faith”.
In June he said strike action by nurses was “the last thing we want, and I hope it’s the last thing that the union wants as well”.
The education minister, John-Paul Langbroek, said the state government wanted to make sure that Queensland teachers are well remunerated and respected, “and that’s something that we’ve made sure over 17 meetings, over five months”.
Enterprise agreements with will soon run out for the broader public service. They elapsed for firefighters and some Transport and Main Roads workers last month, and will run out for Queensland Corrective Services officers, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce and others next month.
“I have every faith that we will be able to come to terms with the teachers and the nurses, indeed the doctors and the fireys after that,” Crisafulli said on Tuesday.
“We will work with any union who has the interests of the public service at heart, and we will do that in good faith”.
Labor’s police spokesperson, Glenn Butcher, said on Thursday that the police offer was a “dud deal” and he expected many officers to vote it down.
“From what we’re hearing on the ground today, it is not very positive news for this government in relation to this EBA,” he said.
A number of other police unions around the country inked pay deals in the last year. Police will receive a pay rise of 19% over four years in NSW, 18% over four years in Victoria, 12.75% over three years in WA and 11.2% over three years for the AFP.
“This is one of the worst pay deals that’s been given to police by any state. So that speaks volumes,” Butcher said.
If rejected by police union members the deal will go to arbitration at the Industrial Relations Commission.
“I have every faith that once officers get on, have a look at the calculator, see what this agreement is going to deliver for you, I absolutely think that most of our officers will turn around and see that this is a very reasonable deal,” Prior said on Thursday.
