ABC told to cap staff pay rises, show savings

The government is demanding future pay rises for ABC employees be capped at 2 per cent and offset by savings.

The ABC will be subject to public service pay policy. Picture: Damian Shaw

The Turnbull government is ­demanding future pay rises for ABC employees be capped at an average 2 per cent a year and “offset by productivity improvements”, in an unprecedented intervention in negotiations over a deal for the broadcaster’s 5000-strong workforce.

Employment and Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash has insisted the national broadcaster comply with bargaining rules set down for the commonwealth public service that restrict pay rises and entitlements in a move that has outraged the unions.

The bargaining framework is despised by the public service union, which has waged a two- year industrial war over the provisions, resulting in a pay freeze for most of the nation’s 150,000 federal public servants and rolling strikes at airports, Medicare and Centrelink and other agencies.

Confirmation that the policy applies to the ABC, which ­followed questions from The ­Australian yesterday, comes after the Community and Public Sector Union advised members that the broadcaster was exempt.

The broadcaster’s executive will be forced to demonstrate productivity savings before any pay rise for staff is signed off by the Public Service Commissioner under the policy. The development was branded a “disaster” yesterday by the leadership of the CPSU.

A spokesman for the ABC ­yesterday confirmed the government had exercised its discretion to apply the policy to the broadcaster. “The ABC Act allows it to determine its operations independently of government,” the spokesman said.

“However, the act ... also says the minister can provide the ABC with a statement of policy and has done so in relation to current APS bargaining policy.”

A spokesman for Senator Cash told The Australian “ABC employees are indeed bound by the PS bargaining policy”.

The CPSU has branded the wider policy “unfair” and pointed to offers voted down by employees from the Department of Human Services, among the APS’s biggest employers, claiming the deals curtailed flexibility for working parents. The CPSU website tells members “the ABC does not come under ministerial direction and therefore the ABC executive can choose not to follow the framework”.

CPSU national secretary ­Nadine Flood said: “The government’s bargaining policy is an ­absolute mess. Subjecting ABC workers to this disaster does them no favours.”

A spokesman for the MEAA said the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance was “disappointed that early in bargaining for the new ABC enterprise agreement, ABC management is insisting on trade-offs and reductions from employees before it will even consider any form of pay rise.”

“The ABC is an independent corporation funded by government with its own board and ­management and as such is not bound by the public sector ­bargaining guidelines.

“ABC employees have delivered increased efficiencies and ­productivity in recent years above and beyond what can normally be expected, and we will continue to make the case that ABC management should adopt a more flexible position in bargaining.”

Among the measures being proposed from July, after the present enterprise agreement expires, is the introduction of a “shut down clause would allow the ABC to ­direct you to take leave at any time and for any reason they deem necessary regardless of your personal circumstances,” the CPSU has told staff.

The policy outlined on the Australian Public Service Commissioner’s website states that “remuneration increases must be offset by productivity improvements”. It adds that “productivity improvements can be achieved by ensuring that new workplace arrangements do not contain clauses that restrict an agency’s ability to operate efficiently and effectively” — a clause the union has said gives employers the green light to restrict workers’ rights.

Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd says the policy has merely resulted in culling union “privileges” in some instances and is needed to bolster the bureaucracy’s efficiency.