Western Australia Returns to Case-by-Case Pay Rise Negotiations

The Western Australian (WA) Labor government has ended its public sector-wide wages policy, a move that will see public workers renegotiate for better pay and conditions. Under the new policy, the government will dismantle the fixed pay rise for more than 140,000 public sector workers and instead allow them to bargain with individual public sector unions. The policy is expected to prioritise bargaining outcomes that lift public sector performance as well as support longer-term attraction and retention of public sector workers. Speaking on Dec. 18, a day before the mid-year budget review, WA Premier Roger Cook said the new approach would provide flexibility in bargaining to address “the industrial issues most important to the state’s public sector workforce.”...