'Third and final' offer: APSC wraps up service-wide pay talks

The commission's chief negotiator Peter Riordan on Thursday notified bargaining parties the government was prepared to shift its first scheduled pay rise of 4 per cent forward by 12 weeks.

But this would be in the form of a one-off payment, not inclusive of super, dated from December and paid in March if certain conditions are met.

Mr Riordan told APS staff later in the afternoon this would be "the Commonwealth's third and final improvement to pay", and that service-wide pay talks had concluded. This means staff will be allowed to vote on their enterprise agreements as they conclude bargaining at the agency level.

Talks on the first APS-wide pay rise since 1995 have been deadlocked since the Community and Public Sector Union rejected the government's second offer of 11.2 per cent in September, and expanded industrial action across several agencies.

Under the initial offer, public servants would receive a pay rise of 4 per cent from March 14, 2024, 3.8 per cent from March 13, 2025, and 3.4 per cent from March 12, 2026.

But the Public Service Commission has offered to deliver a one-off payment to staff at agencies which reach in-principle agreement on their enterprise agreements by March 2024.

The one-off payment would be equivalent to 0.92 per cent of public servants' base salary, calculated from December 21, as a means to bring forward the overall 4 per cent pay rise.

Bargaining parties, which include the CPSU, other unions and individuals from the APS, have until November 30 to respond to the offer.

The fate of pay talks now hinges on the CPSU's response, as the union with the largest membership across the 102 APS agencies. It is expected the union will poll members before providing a response to government.

APS staff have the final say on the pay offer, when they cast their votes on enterprise agreements but the government risks campaigns against "yes" votes if the union rejects the latest revision.

Mr Riordan said the offer was made to "resolve the impasse", and that it was an "an improvement to the Commonwealth's pay offer to conclude APS-wide bargaining".

"By bringing forward the year one pay increase by 12 weeks, employees now have the opportunity to get an additional payment in their pockets after a successful vote on their agency's enterprise agreement," he said in a statement to The Canberra Times.

But Australian Services Union tax branch secretary Jeff Lapidos criticised the proposal as "misleading", saying the government would not bring forward a pay rise through a one-off boost.

"That's not right. If it was true, there would be superannuation payable for that 12 weeks," said Mr Lapidos, who represents about 1100 members in the Australian Taxation Office.

He also criticised a condition which sets out staff who leave their agencies before the commencement of the new enterprise agreement would not receive the boost.

Mr Lapidos was still analysing the offer on Thursday afternoon, in order to provide advice to union members, but said: "I think we will advise [that] we think it's inadequate. The offer does not address ATO salaries, having fallen [and] no longer being competitive against other APS agencies."

The commission has also requested that the CPSU pause industrial action while they consider the offer.

The union has held strikes - varying from one-hour to 24-hour stoppages - in Services Australia, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, the Fair Work Ombudsman, and parts of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry over the course of several months.

It has also prepared other agencies for action, including the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

The latest revision, is the government's third proposal in APS-wide pay talks, which began in March.

An offer of 10.5 per cent was knocked back by the CPSU in May, before the government tabled the 11.2 per cent proposal in August.

Pay talks were expected to be wrapped up by the end of August, but have blown out. Agencies have since begun a second round of bargaining focused on specific workplace conditions, which they will need to wrap up by March in order to receive the one-off payment.