The Community and Public Sector Union has urged the Albanese government to expand its proposed changes for casual workers to federal public servants.
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The federal government's latest tranche of industrial relations changes propose replacing the definition of casual employees and introducing a new pathway for eligible employees to become permanent if they wish to do so.
If passed, the proposed amendment would apply to the Fair Work Act 2009, which does not cover public servants in most cases.
But CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly has argued the federal government's casual workforce needs bolstered security too.
"All workers, including those within the APS, should have access to the rights and benefits of secure employment," she said in a statement.
"Agencies and Departments across the APS should be working to find ways to retain skilled and experienced staff - converting casual employees to secure and ongoing employment is one way to do that.
"The proposed exclusion could see APS agencies avoid casual conversion, which risks them losing staff who want and need job security."
The Australian Public Service had 7733 casuals as at June 2023, representing just 4.5 per cent of its workforce.
ACT independent senator David Pocock said the CPSU had raised "legitimate concerns with the current provisions in the omnibus bill relating to casual conversion".
"I would be supportive of amending the draft legislation to better enable casual APS employees to convert to permanent," he said.
The upper house on Thursday passed four sections of the IR legislation, in a bid to split off elements of the bill thought to be uncontroversial.
The move was executed by Senator Pocock and Senator Jacqui Lambie, who proposed four private senators' bills, which will now be considered by the lower house.
The crossbench senators say other parts of the bill, including changes to the gig economy and casual workers, are more complex and require more consideration, though Labor has called for the legislation to be passed this year.
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![APS casual workers should be included in proposed amendments to IR legislation, CPSU says. APS casual workers should be included in proposed amendments to IR legislation, CPSU says.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/143258707/ce9ff203-7899-4d5e-81a4-b565ac9b3ba0.jpg/r0_273_5338_3286_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)