International passengers are being warned to get to the airport early on Monday, as border force staff engage in 24 hours of strike action over a long-running pay dispute with the federal government.
Staff of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, which takes in border force, will strike at airports, ports and mail and cargo centres, the Community and Public Sector Union has said.
“We don’t want to inconvenience passengers, but we would suggest that people get to airports early,” the CPSU national secretary, Nadine Flood, told reporters on Sunday. “This is a really tough decision for border force workers and we do know it will impact the public.”
Flood said the extent of the disruption would depend on the department’s “contingency plans”.
“We are being told that there are hundreds of managers being flown around the country to cover airports in particular,” Flood said. “We can expect some impact on passengers coming into and leaving the country.”
The department released a statement on Friday saying Australia’s borders “will remain secure” due to its contingency plans.
“The department is making arrangements to minimise the impact on travellers at our international airports as much as possible,” the assistant commissioner, Clive Murray, from force’s strategic border command, said in a statement last week.
“We will work to provide the best service we can, allocating available resources where they are needed. The health, safety and security of the public and our staff continues to be our priority.”
Those in national security and counter-terrorism roles would not go on strike, Flood said, adding about 500 union members were supporting the industrial action.
The industrial action is part of a year-long dispute between CPSU and the federal government, which wants to reduce certain allowances in exchange for a modest pay rise.
Last month the government increased its pay offer from 1.5% to 2%.
Flood says removing penalties and allowances for fitness provisions and the use of firearms could see some border force staff lose anything from $8,000 to $20,000 a year.
“They [the government] haven’t moved on cuts to border force pay and they haven’t moved on workplace rights, and those are the key issues,” she said.
Murray said it was “disappointing” CPSU was continuing with the strike despite a recently-announced proposal to restructure allowances and change the framework for public sector enterprise bargaining.
“Less than a week after the government announced changes to the bargaining policy, notices of PIA [protected industrial action] from the CPSU resumed without even waiting to see what the department is able to offer,” he said.
Flood is urging the employment minister, Michaelia Cash to sit down with the union and negotiate a deal.
The union paused plans for industrial action for six weeks to allow Cash and the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to come to grips with their new roles following the ousting of former prime minister, Tony Abbott, Flood said.
“The government is disappointed that the CPSU has chosen go on strike and disadvantage travellers rather than sitting down and negotiating a new agreement using the flexibility provided by the government’s revised bargaining policy,” Cash said.
“Travellers are unlikely to be sympathetic to the CPSU’s approach of striking instead of talking.”
