ABC employees given 11 per cent pay rise over three years and $1500 bonus

Employees at the public broadcaster will receive an 11 per cent pay rise and other perks after months of negotiations were finally resolved.

ABC managing director David Anderson. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Thousands of ABC employees will receive an 11 per cent pay rise and $1500 bonus after a majority of staff voted in favour of the new pay deal.

After several months of negotiations between ABC management, human resources officials and union representatives, the proposed agreement was put to staff for a vote this month and was passed comfortably, with 94.4 per cent voting in favour of the new pay offer.

The nation’s largest journalists’ union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, issued a note to its members on Wednesday morning confirming the new enterprise agreement had been successful.

ABC staff will receive an 11 per cent pay rise over three years, a $1500 bonus, an audit of gender, race and regional pay gaps and also improved access to progress through pay grades.

The pay rise will be backdated to October 1 last year.

The agreement also will allow a review of pay progression and work level standards to proceed and improved conditions made in relation to entitlements including overtime and paid parental leave.

In February, negotiations escalated after an agreement could not be reached between HR representatives and union officials, resulting in managing director David Anderson intervening in an unusual move to lead the pay discussions with the MEAA and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).

The MEAA has about 1100 members at the ABC and in its note to them on Wednesday it explained that the agreement will now go to the Fair Work Commission for approval.

“Delegates will meet to discuss plans to enforce members’ newly won rights and continue to improve pay and conditions for insecurely employed, junior and regional staff so the ABC can provide sustainable careers and serve the public as it should,” it said in the MEAA e-newsletter.

During the lengthy discussions, ABC staff threatened to strike numerous times in a bid to secure higher pay increases and improved working conditions but ended up cancelling the proposed industrial actions.

In October last year the federal government awarded public service employees an interim pay rise of 3 per cent for those eligible for an increase between September 1, 2022 and August 31 this year.

Employees at Nine Entertainment were also awarded a pay rise of four per cent in the first year and 3.5 per cent in the second year for those earning an annual wage of up to $170,000.

The ABC would not comment.