About 48,000 Queensland public servants are getting a 2.2 per cent pay rise for Christmas.

Premier Campbell Newman says the government is using a section of the Public Service Act to give “core” public servants a pay rise now, rather than having to wait up to another year for the arbitration process to be finalised.

“The Queensland government has been trying persistently since mid-2012 to give the core public service a pay rise, but our efforts have been stymied at every turn by the Together Union,” he said.

He said it was an interim wage increase which provided wage certainty for the next three years.

His office said the first increase will be paid by early February 2014, but it will apply to leave loading payments from December 1 2013.

It follows a recent decision by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission to grant ambulance officers a 2.2 per cent pay rise.

The premier says he personally intervened to break the 18-month deadlock and he blamed the Together Union for the delay.

“I’m delighted to have broken the impasse,” he said.

“The whole process was going nowhere. It’s well and truly overdue.”