More than 700 of the state’s transport workers, tradespeople, kindergarten teachers and others employed by the Government and local councils on award rates, or the minimum wage, have been awarded a 2.4 per cent pay rise from the Industrial Relations Commission.

The ruling, revealed on the commission’s website yesterday, takes the base rate for 46 public-sector awards from $17.60 per hour to $18.02 per hour from July 1, and endorses the national minimum wage and award rate pay rise granted by the Fair Work Commission in May.

It comes less than a week after Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis angered public-sector unions by capping future annual wages growth to 1.5 per cent, over the next three years, in his 2016 Budget.

“I’m asking [the public service] to be a little more understanding of South Australia’s financial position,” Koutsantonis told reporters in last week’s budget lock-up, unveiling the measure expected to save the Government almost $360 million.

A spokesperson for Public Sector Minister John Rau told InDaily that the 2.4 per cent increase for the lowest-paid public servants had been taken into account in the budget.

“The State Government submission to the Industrial Relations Commission was made before the budget,” the spokesperson said.

“Any budget impacts have been factored in and there are no further impacts on the budget bottom line.

“The increase only applies to those workers paid the minimum.”

But the spokesperson said any wage negotiations that were underway before the budget was handed down would “continue under previous arrangements”.

Public Service Association spokesperson Simon Johnson told InDaily the union had no problem with the decision of the Industrial Relations Commission, but said wage negotiations locked in before the budget was handed down – at well above 1.5 per cent annual growth – would create two classes of public servants.

He said unions for the state’s police, teachers and nurses had secured 2.5 per cent annual pay rises from the Government, but much of the rest of the public service would have to suffer 1.5 per cent the pay cap.

“PSA members are now being told that we value [your] work 1 per cent less than other public-sector workers,” said Johnson.

“People will be working together … and getting different wage outcomes.

“It’s creating a different class.”

He said that the State Government generally had a “one government, one employer, one public sector” policy.

“[However] now we’re going back to the dark old days [of] the haves and the have-nots,” he said.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation CEO Elizabeth Dabars confirmed the Government had given an assurance that its members were exempt from the 1.5 per cent cap.

She said because the ANMF was engaging in enterprise bargaining, none of its members would be affected by the Industrial Relations Commission case.

All of the parties to the case, including the Government and the Local Government Association, agreed to the 2.4 per cent pay increase.

The commission’s ruling says: “Whilst the outlook in terms of growth for the [SA] economy is mixed, and unemployment levels have increased by 0.7 per cent since a year ago, we do not consider there to be any factors of significance which count against the flow on in this state of the modest increase granted by the Fair Work Commission panel.”