Most New Zealanders feel the Government made the wrong call when they announced a “pay freeze” for public servants , according to new polling.
The 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll asked people: “Do you support or oppose a public sector wage freeze for those earning over $60,000 per annum?”
Of those who answered, 26 per cent said they supported the pay freeze, but 53 per cent said it wasn’t a good idea. Twenty-one per cent said they didn’t know or refused to answer.
Digging further into the poll numbers, only a third of those who said they voted Labour supported the idea of the pay freeze.
Those most likely to be against the pay freeze are people who said they voted for National or ACT.
Police Association president Chris Cahill said the poll was consistent with what he’d heard from the public and from police officers who were part of the association.
NZ Nurses Association industrial services manager Glenda Alexander said the poll results reflected the “Kiwi matra of fair play”.
“One of the big issues for us is there's plenty of growth in the economy and so why should the public sector have to sit back and see other people's wages outstrip ours?” she said.
Earlier this month, the Government said it would be open to discussing increasing public sector workers’ pay in line with living costs, if they were on moderate incomes. It also agreed to review the pay freeze policy at the end of 2022, a year earlier than initially announced.
The softer stance came after senior ministers met with the Public Service Association (PSA) and the Council of Trade Unions (CTU).
But, Public Service Minister Chris Hipkins denied the Government had shifted its position and said cost-of-living increases were “in scope to be discussed during negotiations, as they always were”. That’s despite his initial announcement that only in “special circumstances” could public servants earning between $60,000 and $100,000 expect pay increases.
Hipkins today said the poll’s question was “misleading” because “there isn't a public sector wage freeze”.
“We've never used the phrase 'wage freeze'. We are in a period of wage restraint.”
NZEI Te Riu Roa, the teacher’s union, said its members disagreed with Hipkins’ view.
“They know a wage freeze. They know what it looks like. They've heard what the government has said,” the union’s national secretary Paul Goulter said.
Between May 22-26, 2021, 1002 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (501) and online (501). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1%-points at the 95% confidence level.
The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region and ethnic identification.
The sample for mobile phones is selected by random dialling using probability sampling, and the online sample is collected using an online panel.
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