00:02For the Territory's firefighters and corrections staff,
00:06industrial relations have hit rock bottom.
00:08The Government going to the Fair Work Commission to resolve two lengthy disputes.
00:13Leah constantly goes on about being financially responsible.
00:17This process of attacking workers and taking them to intractable bargaining
00:21is not fiscally responsible at all.
00:24Under intractable bargaining, the Government and the Union
00:26could be forced to accept paying conditions set by the Commission.
00:30The United Workers Union is challenging the applications,
00:33fearing they could set a precedent for the other five workforces also negotiating their pay.
00:38In my experience in bargaining, you have the opportunity to thrash things out,
00:43make concessions, work out a way forward.
00:46But with this process, all we do, we put our claims on the table.
00:49They do a cost, they say not agreed.
00:51The Commissioner for Public Employment has accused the Union
00:54of pursuing unaffordable and unreasonable claims.
00:57Contributing to the dispute is the Government's policy of 3% yearly wage rises
01:02for public sector workers.
01:03But industrial relations experts say that this latest move
01:06could backfire for the Government.
01:08The 3% is the Northern Territory Government's negotiating position, if you like.
01:14The Fair Work Commission isn't bound by that, so they could go for 4% and so forth.
01:20The firefighters' matter is before the Fair Work Commission on Thursday.
01:27The Fair Work Commission is here and is sending additionalرفatory
01:29The Fair Work Commission is accepts it really, really important,
01:30and so it works very differently for everybody.
01:31We'll let them stand for each other.
01:31We have a good friend of mine.
