UnionsNSW: Workers Rally

30,000 workers have walked off the job to march in a mass rally in Sydney over the NSW government's wage cap and job cuts today.

NSW parliament has gone into lockdown as the protest begins to march along Macquarie Street.

They have arrived at the Hyde Park fountain and all streets around the park are closed.

Visitors are unable to attend and workers have restricted access with security and police guarding all access points to parliament house.

Speaking on behalf of hospital workers and cleaners at the rally, Margaret Pike said her co-workers at the RPA needed protection.

"We've already gone from 450 to 180 cleaners. Barry O'Farrell you've gone to caviar and the 2.5 per cent will buy us dog biscuits," Mr Park said.

Sydney firefighter Leighton Drury said the O'Farrell Government was offering them an "impossible choice".

"Firefighters have got mortgages and bills to pay. We can't see wages go backwards otherwise we can't pay them," Leighton Drury said.

"We're only asking for a fair go for us and the community."

The crowd has just sent an SMS to Premier Barry O'Farrell's feedback mobile number 0459601230.

They are now distributing the beach balls with Barry O'Farrell's head on them to the crowd.

They chanted "shame Barry shame'' after Premier Barry O'Farrell's 2.5 per cent wages cap policy, which will also strip the Industrial Relations Commission of its power to arbitrate on behalf of public sector workers, was condemned.

Mr Lennon told the crowd more than 30,000 protesters appeared to have turned up.

"Friends, we have a problem, there's too many of us here,'' he told the crowd, evoking wild applause.

"We said there would be at least 20,000 people here today, it looks like ... there are 30,000 people here today.

"If the premier had any doubt about the anger of the public sector, all he has to do is look out the window of Parliament House.''

The crowd started singing 'We're not going to take it' several times during Mr Lennon's address, in which he said the O'Farrell government had launched an "unprecedented attack on public service rights''.

NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Gary Zadkovich: "They changed the law to deny our right to an independent hearing in that very commission. Our salaries and working conditions now are going to be attacked in the next four years by the unfair use of Parliament to enact laws that deny us the same rights as any other employee in this state. I think people out there would understand ... there are times in history when people in a democratic society can exercise their right to strike when the government gets it so wrong."

But Premier Barry O'Farrell has dubbed the mass protest as "pointless''.