Services Australia workers impose bans over pay fight

The Community and Public Sector Union is seeking a 20 per cent pay increase over three years after rejecting the latest offer from the Albanese government.

Katy Gallagher said negotiations would continue with the union.

Public sector workers will embark on two weeks of industrial action at Services Australia from Tuesday after rejecting the Albanese Government’s offer of a 10.5 per cent pay rise over three years.

The Community and Public Sector Union, which is seeking a 20 per cent increase over three years, said the government needed to “do better on pay” and lift its offer to 150,000 federal public sector workers.

The CPSU said the proposed industrial action at Services Australia is designed not to impact customers seeking assistance but “wreak havoc on the agency’s systems of staff monitoring”.

Services Australia staff will not enter prescribed codes that allow management to track the tasks individual employees are performing at any given time.

CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly said the government was elected on a “platform of getting wages moving, but pay proposals to date are falling short of this commitment”.

“Our members are adamant that they will not settle for the current unambitious pay proposals. As a result, CPSU members in Services Australia will be exercising their right to take protected industrial action this week, with support from their colleagues across the APS,” she said.

“This first action should make it clear to (the) government that our union and our members are serious about securing a fair outcome on pay and they will do what is necessary to achieve that.

“Banning the use of Auxiliary Codes for two weeks will significantly disrupt internal monitoring and data collection, and fly in the face of the toxic micro-management culture that exists in Services Australia.”

In a statement, the federal Minister for the Public Service Katy Gallagher said negotiations were continuing and the Australian Public Service Commission aimed to reach an agreement soon.

“The Albanese Government is committed to being a model employer and these negotiations with the public sector unions represent the first time in a decade that a federal government has been at the table and willing to engage in genuine enterprise bargaining,” she said.

Under the government’s offer, an APS employee who currently earned a salary of $95,873 would receive a total pay increase of $10,421, taking their annual salary to $106,294.