A PAY freeze offer from unions to the government to stave off further job cuts appears unlikely to pass muster.
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Treasurer Peter Gutwein has given unions "one shot" at an offer of a wage pause to offset an additional 500 job cuts this financial year.
Unions are in the midst of statewide meetings with members and say they are receiving strong support for the proposal of a pay freeze until the end of the financial year.
According to the proposal, December's scheduled wage increase would be postponed until July, giving the unions more time to negotiate further savings.
But the unions' offer is conditional on no further job cuts above the 700 outlined in the state budget, which is unlikely to meet Mr Gutwein's approval.
"If the unions are prepared to put forward a pay freeze that is genuine and without condition, we will accept those savings and use them to offset the need for more job losses," he said.
"(But) anything shorter than an 18-month pay freeze that delivers less than the $50 million in savings we need will result in some jobs still needing to go.
"We are getting on with the job of fixing the budget mess and we look forward to seeing the unions' proposal."
Terry Polglase, state president of the Australian Education Union, said the offer should be enough to stop the sackings.
"People working in education have an expectation that the sackings will stop and this is the condition on which they agreed to a wage freeze," he said.
Greens leader Kim Booth said the government had set an unreasonable target for the unions.
"(He is) setting up the scenario where he can dismiss out of hand any proposal the unions put forward and proceed with his callous slash and burn of jobs," Mr Booth said.
Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Tom Lynch said he was deeply unhappy with the way the government had handled the process.
"They seem to be trying to frighten the membership into some sort of industrial action," he told The Examiner.
"We're not going to let this government walk all over us - they're going to have to deal with their workforce."