The NSW government will take its controversial freeze to the industrial relations commission after the legislation was voted down in the upper house of parliament on Tuesday night.

Western NSW Teachers Federation organiser Brett Bertalli said the commission was known as "the boss's" court, which he expected to side with the premier and deny a wage increase for public servants.

"We will be out in force ... the worst situation is that we have an industrial campaign to run. That's the last resort but that's the way it is," Mr Bertalli said.

Approximately 1660 teachers in the Riverina would be impacted by the freeze.

The government has argued the freeze would guarantee public sector jobs while saving $3 billion to be spent on infrastructure projects.

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But the wages policy has been dismissed by frontline workers including nurses, who are next in line for an enterprise agreement renewal and so could feel the effects of a freeze from the start of July.

Riverina Teachers Federation organiser John Pratt said the freeze would take $1 billion out of rural economies "at the wrong time" as they started to recover from coronavirus.

He disagreed that public servants should make an economic sacrifice because of their relative security compared with other workers.

"There are no conditions that are enjoyed [in the public sector] that haven't been hard won by those who've gone before us," he said.

Wagga councillor Dan Hayes slammed Wagga-based Nationals MLC Wes Fang for voting to pass the freeze in the NSW upper house.

Cr Hayes said Mr Fang had "betrayed" health workers despite purportedly congratulating them on social media.

Mr Fang in response said he was fighting for rural communities who had been hard-hit by the virus.

"[Cr Hayes] should meet with those workers and their families who have lost their jobs, and explain why he thinks a pay rise at this time is appropriate," Mr Fang said.