Public sector workers take on SA government

Written by: Ned K. on 26 June 2025

Public sector workers in South Australia are refusing to accept the SA Government's attempt to peg wage increases in new Enterprise Agreements at 3% per year.  Unions representing a broad range of occupations from hospital cleaners to salaried medical officers employed in public hospitals have been negotiating for new Agreements since mid-2024.

The medical officers and their union, SASMOA, have been the punching bag for the Government and Premier Malinauskas in particular.

The medical officers wage claim is for 10% increase each year for three years. Malinauskas, ably supported by the Murdoch Press with a headline "Mali slams belligerent union claims", (Adelaide Advertiser page 1, 26 June 2025) claims that such wage increases will put the State of SA Government budget "back into deficit" and that such wage increases will impede the Government's ability "to invest in infrastructure".

Workers across the public sector are not copping this argument. They know that some of the public sector jobs in SA are 20% lower pay than the same jobs in the eastern States. This includes medical officers' jobs in critical areas of patient care.

Hospital cleaners, disability workers, food services workers and nurses have all seen the above Award margin in their Enterprise Agreements shrink over the last decade as governments took advantage of the job losses in manufacturing in SA with the closure of the car industry to depress public sector wages and increase workloads.

Workers can see that the current "Mr Popularity" Premier Malinauskas has no problem in finding undisclosed money amounts for car races, Liv Golf and AFL Gather Rounds, plus corporate welfare to big business in various forms, but when it comes to frontline workers providing public services, there's a hue and cry about "greedy" unions!

The attempt to clamp down on public sector workers' incomes comes at a time when NATO countries agree to the USA's demand to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP and pressure from the USA for Australia to follow. 

In SA, the SA Government sold off land to expand the proposed nuclear submarine ship building base at Osborne in Adelaide's northwestern suburbs. More SA Government money has gone towards supporting the submarine base but the exact amounts are rarely published.

Malinauskas is committed to the submarine base as the saviour of SA's future. 

The higher the public sector wages paid, the less money to throw towards SA as "the Defence State".

There is also the reality that under capitalism, workers in the private sector know that historically public sector wages have been higher than in the private sector and have set the benchmark for many workers in the private sector to struggle towards.

So, the lower the public sector wages are puts downward pressure on wages across the board and hence increases profitability in the private sector as a whole.

Malinauskas comes from the line of politicians dating back to the days of the Groupers and the DLP. Dedicated supporters of the "freedom and democracy" of capitalism.

Keeping the working people at bay through a "bread and circuses" approach is the game the ruling class and its Premier play.

The determination in struggle of public sector workers shows that this strategy is wearing thin. 

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