By now you’ve probably seen the government representatives’ latest bargaining update.

The update is misleading. It does not include the comments that HACSU made, or the issues we raised. It also claims that we’ve agreed to things that we have not agreed on.

We are continually frustrated that government negotiators claim that we’ve agreed to things without providing any of the detail about what we’ve supposedly agreed to, particularly when many of the issues are contentious at best.

Let’s be clear: the government’s overall position so far is a dud. They haven’t taken on board the improvements you wanted to make in your log of claims and your bargaining team will not be seeking endorsement on it. We’ll be rejecting the offer outright if it remains as is.

The pay offer is also still paltry. They’ve proposed a sign on and then wage “increases” of 3.25% in the first year then 3% in each of the second and third years. This is not good enough when we consider significant rises to cost of living. The sign on amount still won’t bridge that gap and it’s only a one-off payment.

We’ve got a lot to talk about at our membership meetings this week, which start today in Devonport.

Unless the government make significant improvements to their offer, we’ll need to discuss taking further industrial action to force them to play ball.

If you’ve got any more questions or need further information, get in touch with us via HACSUassist.