Premier Chris Minns has rejected claims he went back on a pay agreement with the NSW Teachers Federation.Credit:Nick Moir
The outgoing union boss insisted the parties had reached a deal,sealed with a “handshake and a hug” for a one-year wage agreement of pay rises between 8 and 12 per cent that would have made NSW teachers among the highest paid in the country.
But that offer,Gavrielatos said,was reneged on,with the government later insisting on a four-year agreement that would limit rises to 2.5 per cent for the remaining three years of the deal.
The 2.5 per cent offer angered key figures in the union movement,with the head of Unions NSW Mark Morey comparing it to the former Coalition government’s controversial wages cap and warning Labor risked losing public sector workers who helped elect the party in March.
But on Tuesday Minns insisted there had been no agreement with the Teachers Federation and dismissed any comparisons to the previous government’s wages cap,calling it “wilfully ignorant”.
Teachers are upset with Premier Chris Minns and Education Minister Prue Car,for allegedly reneging on a pay deal.Credit:AAP
Minns said the “generous” pay offer had to be affordable and pointed to Reserve Bank projections of falling inflation from 2024 as evidence the offer was fair.
“Obviously,we haven’t had an agreement with them. If we did have an agreement,we would have announced that to the people in NSW,” he said.