ACT public sector workers will be offered top-up payments if inflation spikes under a new offer designed to de-escalate the threat of industrial action after almost a year of bargaining talks.
If Canberra's annual inflation hits 3.5 per cent in the second and third years of the deal, government workers would receive a $600 cost-of-living payment.
If inflation hits 4 per cent, workers would receive $1000.
The latest annual inflation figures for the ACT show consumer prices rose 4.1 per cent to May, but the government's own forecasts of easing inflation show they do not expect to have to pay the cost-of-living payments to public sector workers.
The ACT government's revised offer, sent to staff on Monday, maintains the 3 per cent a year pay rises for three years that unions had complained sat below inflation.
Public Service Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the updated offer sought to recognise public servants' work while balancing the challenging fiscal environment the ACT faced.
"The package delivers a sustainable and competitive outcome for employees and the broader ACT community and maintains the ACT Public Service as one of the country's highest paid public sector workforces," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"This package reflects feedback from employees following the March offer by adding an additional one-off cost-of-living payment each year if annual inflation is higher than expected. This recognises ongoing uncertainty in the global and national economy."
The 2026-27 ACT budget said inflation was expected to remain at 2.5 per cent over the forward estimates.
"Although inflation had already been accelerating, the ACT continued to record one of the lowest annual inflation rates in the country in the March quarter 2026 [of 3.7 per cent] compared with national inflation of 4.1 per cent," the budget papers said.
The new proposed offer, which the government intends to put to a ballot, brings forward increases to superannuation and provides the previously promised parental leave increases sooner.
The deal includes increasing paid leave for non-birthing parents to 18 weeks and removing the requirement for permanent staff to work a year before accessing new parental leave entitlements.
Public servants would also be granted an extra three days of personal leave without evidence each year, with the entitlement growing to 10 days.
Family, domestic and sexual violence leave would be uncapped and ceremonial leave for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees would be doubled to 10 days a year.
Voting on the new agreement will open on August 26 and close on September 8.
In December, staff were presented with a pay rise offer that would have increased wages by 3 per cent in the first year, then 2.5 per cent and 2 per cent in the two following years.
Staff in February knocked back the deal and the government in March increased the pay offer to a 3 per cent rise every year for three years.
The ACT's general service officers, represented by the CFMEU, want a 5 per cent pay rise this year, followed by 4 per cent in 2027 and 3 per cent in 2028, along with a pay allowance for front-line workers.
The workers last month voted to take industrial action if pay talks did not progress, the union said.
