This is Amy's story
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A: State School Teachers Union (SSTUWA)
A: 25-34
A: I work in the WA public sector
A: Supporting the public sector workforce
A: Ensuring quality public services
A: Hospitals
A: Schools
A: “Public good” means shared duties and responsibilities towards a society’s progress and prosperity. It relates to essentials services a country/nation needs to ensure a future for itself, which are: Safety, Health and Education.
Regardless of political ideologies and cultural discourses, children and young people should be guaranteed access to Safe homes and neighbourhoods, Initial and secondary instruction, and Health and medical care on the other hand. Public good remains the only way to guarantee this access at all time and in all places.
A: Other (please add details at the final question)
A: 60-69
A: I am retired
A: Ensuring quality public services
A: Ensuring quality public services
A: Hospitals
A: Hospitals
A: Of benefit to the community as a whole as opposed to narrow self interest.
A: I have to say that Treasurer Wyatt’s comments regarding public sector pay freezes shook me to the core. Just because COVID-19 hit, didn’t mean that my work had to stop. I didn’t stop developing materials when the virus hit. We all adapted, shaped and changed our work to suit the conditions, and got stuck into the task. We stuck to our deadlines as per what we had before the pandemic. We had to, we didn’t have the choice to push things out. We made it our duty to make sure that the public got what they want out of us. We work hard to make sure our services keep running. Hearing these comments about us deserving a pay freeze, is basically the treasurer saying “thanks for helping out during COVID-19. Here’s a pay cut. Fuck you.”
Now considering that for one, we were in a per-capita recession before the pandemic, and now we’re officially in a recession due to the per capita recession and the pandemic making a complete shit storm of the economy, the last thing we all need is a pay freeze. Wages have been stagnant for over a decade now, and inflation has only creeped up higher and higher. Stagnant wages when compared to inflation should be seen as what they are. Gradual pay cuts.
All I ask is for a simple cost of living adjustment to align our pay with the rate of inflation. This means that I get paid mathematically the same, year in, year out as the economy fluctuates. This isn’t a payrise, but rather it’s tacking the wage bang on to the rate of what a dollar is worth at the time.
Anyone with a basic understanding of economics should know this. I am by no means an economist. I’m just a filmmaker who happens to nerd out over policy a bit. But I’ve felt what it’s like to be well and truly poor. I know the difficulty of putting food on my own plate, and struggling to keep a roof over my head. Over the years, this gets harder and harder if you just get paid the same as you did last year. That’s because over time, things get more expensive.
This is what it means to be in a stagflated economy. The basics get more expensive whilst your pay stays the same.
Its about time we fight this.
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A: Community and Public Sector Union - Civil Service Association (CPSU-CSA)
A: 25-34
A: I work in the WA public sector
A: Ensuring quality public services
A: Supporting the public sector workforce
A: Emergency Services
A: Disability Services
A: Police saved my life a few years ago, but if it wasn’t for the dispatchers and the staff helping them, I wouldn’t be here today.
My local area coordinator helped me find the support I needed for my Autism, but it was the efforts of all the support workers behind him that helped him to find what I needed.
DMIRS took me under their wing, and allowed me to let my talent for graphics and art shine. They listened to the struggled I faced, and we worked together to create plans and build a future.
Now I’m an advocate for the safety and health of workers, I support the inspectorate by providing training content and materials, and by capturing their knowledge for future generations of inspectors.
My role may be small, but the roles we all play build up to something bigger. We all do what we do for the public good. For the sake of something greater than ourselves.
A: I am actually a member of two unions the SSTUWA which I work for and represented me when I was teaching. I still belong to the SSTUWA as a condition of my employment as an Industrial Officer with that union, but am represented by and belong to the ASU as well.
A: Australian Services Union (ASU)
A: 60-69
A: I work in the not-for-profit sector
A: Supporting the public sector workforce