The main public sector union has mobilised staff across two more departments to strike, dragging out a stalemate over a pay rise for federal public servants.
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Community and Public Sector Union members in the Agriculture and Employment departments voted overwhelmingly in favour of protected industrial action, the union announced on Sunday.
In the Agriculture department, the ballot applied to meat inspectors and on plants vets staff.
It has not yet announced whether the agencies will strike.
The CPSU lodged protection action ballots with the Fair Work Commission on behalf of the two departments and the Fair Work Ombudsman, after rejecting a second APS-wide pay offer of 11.2 per cent over three years.
![Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said the union hasn't put forward a counter-offer on pay. Picture by Elesa Kurtz Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said the union hasn't put forward a counter-offer on pay. Picture by Elesa Kurtz](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/143258707/14f4a7a4-7e10-4696-81d6-8f69b50fc01c.jpg/r0_415_8128_5003_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
All three agencies have supported work stoppages between one and 24 hours in favour of pushing for a better pay deal.
Services Australia is the only agency which has already undertaken action over the pay offer.
National secretary Melissa Donnelly called on the government "to do better on pay" in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
"We are urging the government to do better on pay because their workforce needs financial relief, and they need it now," Ms Donnelly said in a statement on Sunday.
"We must not allow the bargaining process to delay workers getting their pay rise or having access to the raft of new conditions that have been negotiated. There is a clear fix here for the government."
The government's pay offer would increase the salaries of staff at 102 APS agencies by 4 per cent in the first year, then 3.8 per cent, followed by 3.4 per cent. It is not due to come into effect until March 2024, but agencies need to vote on their enterprise agreements before they can receive the increase.
The government has also proposed a pay equity model, which would lift the salaries of the lowest paid public servants across 83 agencies, and reached broad support on more than 50 common conditions, such as increased paid parental leave, and flexible work.
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Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher told a Senate estimates hearing last week that the union had not provided a counter-offer to the 11.2 per cent.
"I'm very keen to get this finalised so that we can ensure people get those pay rises as soon as possible," she said.
"But we have revised our offer, we have significantly improved conditions in response to feedback from unions, we haven't had a counter-proposal put to us, other than the original claim which was 20 per cent.
"And so, you know, it's got a little way to go yet."
Senator Gallagher has previously dismissed the union's claim of 20 per cent, front-loaded with a 9 per cent increase in the first year, as "impossible".
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