WA's public service union has signalled it's willing to hold back from pressuring for higher pay rises if the state government "ensured" public servants were "assured" of keeping their jobs.
The state's public servants are worried about job security, with recently elected Labor Premier Mark McGowan outlining plans to slash the sector and reduce the number of departments by 40 per cent to save $750 million over four years, requiring significant job losses.
The government is trying to get a bill through parliament this week to borrow another $11 billion before it runs out of money to pay public servants' wages and other basics as it tries to deal with WA's record high debt and deficit.
The government has also signalled it will reduce the pay rise the previous Liberal National government was offering ahead of a flurry of EBA negotiations this year from 1.5 per cent a year to a flat $1,000 a year.
Community and Public Sector Union secretary Toni Walkington said at a union rally in Perth she did not accept that the state's dire budget situation meant there was no money for pay rises or job security, but conceded the latter was more important for many public servants.
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"We need the offer to address wages. We need the offer to address job security and issues of concern about workloads," she told reporters.
"If that is in the offer our members will have a different view about wages, depending on how important the job security matter is.
"Most members are concerned about job security, whether that is more important or not (than pay rises) that will be in the end our members' determination."
However, Ms Walkington said WA's 40,000 public sector workers would not put up with "machete cuts" from the government.
She pointed out that the last time there had been widespread industrial action by the WA public service was under a Labor government.
Mr McGowan said he was forced to act because any pay rises would be funded with borrowed money and the Liberals and Nationals had left the biggest net debt to revenue ratio in the country.
Many of WA's public servants enjoyed substantial pay increases in the past decade during the mining boom that made them the best paid in Australia.
The McGowan government is facing more union problems over plans to end state-owned Synergy's monopoly on the residential retail electricity market and opening it up to private competitors, with the Electrical Trades, Manufacturing Workers and Services unions all condemning the move on Wednesday.
