SBS staff reject delay to pay rise

SBS employees have voted against freezing salary increases for six months.

SBS staff were awarded a 2% pay rise when a new enterprise agreement came into effect earlier this year to take effect from February 2021, but were asked by the Australian Public Service Commissioner in April to freeze pay increases during the pandemic.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports an SBS spokesman said, “Voting closed earlier this week and the proposed EA variation was not approved by EA staff, with 27% voting in favour and 73% voting against the proposed pay increase deferral. This means there will be no variation to the current EA, and the scheduled pay increase for EA staff will go ahead in February 2021 as planned.”

ABC employees staff also voted against deferring their increase pause despite multiple requests by Communications Minister Paul Fletcher.

ABC managing director David Anderson also took a 5% cut from April until the end of September while SBS temporarily paused general wage increases for staff who weren’t covered by the enterprise agreement, including managing director James Taylor.

The Guardian reports SBS management asked staff to forgo the pay rise not because of government pressure but because their advertising revenue is down.

Last week the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance said staff  were “disappointed” SBS management “refused to guarantee there would be no job losses if the wage freeze was accepted, nor have they committed to cutting executive salaries.”