The main public sector union has warned of potential delays to pay rises if the government doesn't revise its APS-wide pay deal soon, as it announced strikes in two more agencies.
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Community and Public Sector Union members in the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations will stop work for an hour on Thursday, in a bid to pressure the federal government to improve its pay deal of 11.2 per cent over three years.
Industrial action has already taken place in Services Australia over pay, but the latest action expands the main public sector union's action to other agencies.
CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly said in a statement she wanted to see the Albanese government "come back to the bargaining table with a revised pay offer so that we can continue to move forward in the bargaining process".
"Our members have been clear from the beginning - they want to see this round of bargaining deliver a decent pay rise without any delays.
"Right now, we aren't risking delays to pay rises. But if the government doesn't come back to the bargaining table with a revised pay offer soon, there is a risk that timelines could begin to blow out."
![CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly has called again for a revised APS-wide pay offer. CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly has called again for a revised APS-wide pay offer.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/143258707/3152a763-91fe-4e82-a6e3-bb832fce3e7d.jpg/r0_218_4256_2611_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
But Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher on Wednesday showed no signs the government planned to revise the offer again, and hinted at letting public servants vote on the pay deal without backing from the union.
The pay deal was revised up from 10.5 per cent in August, but the union knocked it back, declaring it had not received clear support from its membership. In a poll of about 15,000 CPSU members, 48.1 per cent rejected the deal while 51.9 per cent of members voted in support of it.
The first pay rise of 4 per cent is not due to come into effect until March next year. The proposal states that public servants would then receive a 3.8 per lift in 2025, followed by 3.4 per cent in 2026.
Enterprise bargaining talks have progressed to agencies, where management and staff are discussing conditions specific to their workplaces.
Staff across the APS agencies will then vote on the pay deal and more than 50 common conditions agreed on in the service-wide talks when they consider their enterprise agreements.
Senator Gallagher did not rule out letting APS staff decide on the 11.2 per cent offer, without union support, but said it was not her preference.
"It's not our preferred way of doing of bargaining, but ... we can put the offer to the APS staff.
"We want to work through the union, but they've had their vote, more than half of their membership agreed with the offer that was being put, we know from the representations we're getting from APS employees that they are wanting to settle this deal.
"And so that remains an option, it's not our preferred way of doing things, but I don't want to see people not getting their pay rises in March either."
The Public Service Minister has so far refused to call 11.2 per cent a final offer.
"It's a significant offer, and we have to do something that the budget can afford as well," she said.
She urged the union not to view the package of common conditions, which provides significant increases to parental leave and new workplace flexibility rights, as separate from pay.
"I think it has to be seen as a package, I'm not even sure that we should just contain it to the bargaining, it's the other investments that we've put into the APS, which respond directly to issues the unions have raised, that is part of this overall deal."
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