Pay freeze protest finds support on street

by Mike Dinsdale | 1st December 2009

A  union official is predicting widespread public sector industrial action in Northland  next year as the Government implements a public sector pay freeze.

About 100 Ministry of Justice workers from Northland's courts walked off the job yesterday as their industrial dispute with the Ministry of Justice escalated.

Yesterday's striking workers received  public support outside the courtroom, with one man thanking some of them personally.

"Cheers bro, because you guys are on strike I won't be going to jail today," the man said.

 Members of the Public Service Association union were off the job for two hours from 8.55am yesterday at Whangarei Courthouse and Maori Land Court and Kaitaia and Dargaville District Courts.

PSA staff at Kaikohe Court walked off the job for two hours then voted to extend their strike to cover the whole of yesterday, closing the court there.

The workers' month-long national dispute with the Ministry was put on hold on Thursday and fresh pay offers exchanged on Friday.

However, the action resumed yesterday with the PSA saying the Ministry made a new offer that fell a long way short of addressing that its staff are paid on average 6.3 per cent less than the rest of the public service despite running the country's justice system.

The Ministry offer consisted of a one-off lump sum payment of $750 that would have shrunk down to about $500 net after tax and it has  said there would  be no pay rise until  July, at the earliest.

The union said most court registry officers  were paid between $39,600 and $46,600 a year, with the highest pay rate $53,600.

Most court registry support officers  were paid between $29,500 and $35,000, with the highest rate $40,000.

Northland PSA organiser Mark Furey said with the Government making it clear there was a pay freeze for public sector staff, there would  be industrial strife throughout Northland and the rest of the country next  year. Mr Furey said after agriculture and tourism, the state sector was the third largest employer in Northland.

 As the contracts came up for renewal, staff would react strongly to efforts to freeze their pay.

The striking workers yesterday received lots of support from people as they protested outside Whangarei courthouse, he said.

"Those people and businesses know that the public sector workers are a big part of their income, but if they don't have any disposable income, because the Government isn't giving them a rise, their spending power will reduce."

Mr Furey said every public sector in Northland could go through the same sort of disruption and industrial action if the pay freeze continued.