Australia is in the midst of an “unprecedented level of industrial action” within the public service, as workers refuse to accept pay offers put forward by the government, according to a trade union.
The departments of defence, employment, agriculture, human services and veterans’ affairs, as well as the CSIRO and tax office, have all moved to take industrial action over pay and conditions.
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) said industrial action is now on the cards for agencies that represent half of the commonwealth’s nearly 160,000 public service workers.
“In over 20 years of enterprise bargaining, it is unheard of that not a single agency can make an offer that staff can accept,” the CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood told Guardian Australia. “It’s an unprecedented level of industrial action.”
Flood said public servants have been asked to trade away working conditions for a pay rise of 1% or less.
Employment minister Eric Abetz has rejected that.
“The CPSU consistently misrepresents and exaggerates matters to do with wage bargaining,” Abetz told Guardian Australia.
He said protected action to date has not been widespread.
“Most public servants appreciate the need to work with the government under the current budget conditions and would prefer a minimal wage rise with job security, rather than engage in the CPSU’s outlandish pay claims and its industrial actions,” he said.
“The CPSU should stop standing between public servants and wage outcomes which are affordable. The sooner the CPSU adopts a reasonable approach to bargaining, the sooner public servants will benefit from affordable deals which don’t endanger their own jobs.”
Shadow employment minister Brendan O’Connor said the offers made to public servants is not good enough.
“The Abbott government has shown its contempt for the public service by offering employees from several departments an unreasonable cut to their hard-won conditions on top of a pay cut in real terms,” he told Guardian Australia.
“The government cannot expect the Australian Public Service to function effectively when large numbers of staff are being sacked and those left behind are forced to fight for the most basic workplace entitlements.”
Flood said she “struggles to identify” a time when an employment minister has been so reluctant to negotiate.
The last time they had a face-to-face meeting was January 2014.
“Senator Abetz refuses to meet the CPSU and discuss bargaining. That is very unusual,” Flood said. “I think it’s bizarre. It’s bizarre to have a minister who won’t even discuss the problem.
“We are happy at any point to sit down and have a sensible discussion,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Abetz said the CPSU had been misguided in repeatedly writing to the minister as the bargaining agent for most of the various agencies and departments.
“The minister has said he will not discuss bargaining as he is not the agent. The minister is agreeable to discuss other matters,” she said.
