The state Coalition government recently passed legislation, empowering it to direct the NSW Industrial Relations Commission on wage rulings.

The government also announced its intention to cap public sector wage increases at 2.5per cent.

The protesters chanted, ‘‘Shame Stuart, shame’’ on the march to Mr Ayres’s office and also attacked fellow Liberal MPs Tanya Davies, Mulgoa and Bart Bassett, Londonderry, for supporting the legislation.

Mr Ayres was not in his office, but the visitors presented a letter to his staff.

‘‘We are delivering this letter on behalf of the 12,000 public sector workers who live and work in Penrith and the surrounding areas,’’ it read.

‘‘These workers feel betrayed by you and your government for passing laws through Parliament which take away the rights and conditions of public sector workers.

‘‘Public sector workers in Penrith demand that your government withdraws this legislation ... or ... you resign and seek a mandate from the local people in a by-election.’’

Mr Ayres holds Penrith with a 16per cent margin and Ms Davies holds Mulgoa by 12.4per cent.

Nepean Hospital healthcare worker Vicki Reilly told the protesters’ rally that she and other workers felt betrayed by their local members.

‘‘Stuart Ayres and Tanya Davies visited Nepean Hospital during the election campaign,’’ Ms Reilly said.

‘‘At no time did they indicate they would take away our rights.’’

Mr Ayres said the government had to take action to reduce the deficit left by the previous Labor administration.

‘‘We were elected to fix the financial mess NSW found itself in,’’ he said.

‘‘Public sector workers will still get a 2.5per cent rise and that can be improved on once productivity gains are met.’’

He said it was preferable to other state governments’ policies of offering redundancies to public servants.

Mr Ayres said the government wanted public sector workers to keep their jobs and continue providing essential services.

Ms Davies said her government was elected to make the hard decisions needed to trim NSW’s deficit.

‘‘I’m sure when people see more nurses working and more roads being made, that they will see why we’ve done this,’’ she said.