NSW: O'Farrell's salary cap changes for teachers shot down

Rod Brown
Acting Assistant General Secretary (Research and Industrial) NSW Teachers' Federation

A bid by the O'Farrell Government to discount the Commonwealth's compulsory 0.25 per cent superannuation guarantee increase from the state's 2.5 per cent public sector salary cap has failed.

On August 21 the NSW Legislative Council voted to disallow the NSW Government's Industrial Relations (Public Sector Conditions of Employment) Amendment Regulation 2013, which had the intent of overturning a decision of the Full Bench of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) that superannuation was separate to the wage cap.

The disallowance motion, moved by the ALP and supported by the Greens and the Shooters and Fishers parties in the Legislative Council, was carried by 21 votes to 16. It has the effect of upholding the IRC's decision allowing for the full payment of the 2.5 per cent salary increase.

The Government must now either pay the full 2.5 per cent salary increase as well as the additional 0.25 per cent superannuation increase to all NSW public sector employees including teachers or appeal the decision of the IRC to the NSW Supreme Court.

The Shooters and Fishers Party, which supported the original salary cap laws, has since fallen out with the O'Farrell Government. The party's Robert Borsak has stated that superannuation was not part of the original agreement, and the O'Farrell Government's bid to include it via an amendment was another example of it being "untrustworthy".

"You give them an inch and they take a mile," Mr Borsak said.

While the Government has said it would appeal the IRC decision if its amendment fails to pass, ALP Shadow Industrial Relations Minister and NSW upper house member Adam Searle has said that there is no automatic appeal right from a NSW IRC Full Bench ruling.

Mr Searle has said the Government would have to argue in the state Court of Appeal that the decision should be quashed on jurisdictional error grounds, which he suggested is a "high barrier" to overcome.