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Unions secure minimum three per cent annual pay rise for WaterNSW staff

Earlier this week the CSPU NSW and combined unions reached in-principle agreement with WaterNSW for a one-year Enterprise Agreement. Whilst negotiations have again been hampered by the NSW Government’s unfair wages policy that restricts public sector wage increases to three per cent (which is 2.53 per cent after the super increase) from 1 July 2022, we were able to land on the following changes:

• 2.53 per cent pay increase (plus 0.5 per cent superannuation) effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2022.
• Simplified Pay and Classification structure Simplified PCS which clarifies pay progression and reduces the years of service required to progress to maximum pay for each grade. Grades 1-7, two per cent progression to maximum. Grades 8-10, 2% progression to mid-point, one per cent progression to maximum.
• Bonus system name change to ‘performance  pay’.
• New Performance zero per cent if “not met”, 1.1 per cent if “partially met”, 2.8 per cent if on target, and 3.4 per cent if “out performance”. NB: to pay for the 0.2 per cent cost of the simplified PCS, and the restrictive NSW Government’s wages policy, there is 0.2 per cent reduction in the performance pay matrices.
• Temporary employment: Updated wording and removal of 36-month cap; reporting to PCG on arrangements greater than 24 months.
• Incident Roster arrangements: Updated wording to clarify night shift rate applies to entire shift at same rate.
• Include traditional kinship in definition of family member.
• Acknowledgement of Country at beginning of Enterprise Agreement.
• Parental Leave provisions improved and aligned to the rest of the NSW public sector.
• Added exhaustion of personal leave,  hardship and any other reason approved by WaterNSW to Special leave.
• Annual Leave – Removal of additional day of leave granted for 2021/22 only. Removal of the requirement to take two consecutive weeks. If there is to be a soft shutdown during the Christmas/New Year period it will be brought to the Peak Consultative Group at least three months prior to the proposal. Words added to clarify ‘usual work location’.
• Military payment updated to 2021/2022 rates.

CPSU NSW members’ meeting

All members are invited to attend an MS Teams meeting on Wednesday 17 August 2022 at 12:30pm to discuss the in-principle agreement, and to explain what the next steps will be.

You can register HERE.