United Firefighters Union says MPs pay rises a ‘slap in the face’ for firies battling for wages offer

A generous pay rise for State MPs is a “slap in the face” for firefighters battling for a serious wages offer from the Government, its union says.

As the fallout from Monday’s independent ruling to raise salaries for politicians and senior fat cats by 3.5 per cent continues to mount, one Government minister confessed MPs would always “cop flack” for pay.

The rise meant in the last five years, a State MPs’ salary has been lifted by almost 15 per cent — which also included a decision two years ago to award politicians the State Government’s $3000 cost of living bonus.

United Firefighters Union members brought their fight to lift their base hourly rate of $38 to Parliament House on Wednesday, with secretary John Marsh telling The West, the MPs pay rise would not go down well with members.

“Pay rises like these really fly in the face of the men and women, the firefighters, the people that are covered by our union, the communications centre operators, all of those people who are really doing it tough at the moment,” Mr Marsh said.

“We still haven’t or we have received our first offer. Our EBA has expired, but we’ve certainly requested that the government do not give us a low blow first offer, just to get things done.

“But rather that they take a real, active listen at what the union’s requesting, and they address the terms which are being highlighted to them, rather than just saying ‘we don’t have the money, we can’t afford it.”

Mr Marsh said firefighters were struggling with low morale and cost of living issues after a long period to stagnant wage growth.

“We don’t sell ice creams for a living, but at the end of that, we expect to be reasonably compensated . . . we’re talking about an increase to our base rate,” he said.

“It really is a slap in the face to the people who are a doing it tough, but are doing a significant job which really does impact their physical their mental health and also their family life when they’re being stretched with overtime to compensate them for a fairly low base rate of their occupation.”

Speaking on Wednesday, Housing and Works Minister John Carey said he understood the cynicism around MPs pay, but raised that some community beliefs were wrong, referring to the former generous pension scheme for politicians.

“You always catch flack in this role about pay. I mean, people think we’re still on the generous superannuation. People still believe that I’m on the old scheme that existed . . . and I’m not,” he said.

“I throw everything at (this job). I’m not here for the pay. I’m here to create positive change in the community.

“The community makes a judgement about my performance every four years, and so they make that decision whether any politician has been value for them, whether it’s in terms of the pay they receive, or what they do for the local community.”