Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) members in Services Australia will be participating in a 24-hour strike as they increase pressure on the Albanese Labor Government to improve the pay offer for public service workers.
The work stoppage, scheduled for Monday 9 October, comes after the CPSU rejected the government’s revised pay offer which was a meagre 0.7% increase on their first offer of 10.5% over 3 years.
Both offers have failed to garner clear support from union members.
There is broad support for the conditions package that has been negotiated, but consensus across the CPSU’s membership is that the Albanese Labor Government can and should do better on pay.
The CPSU is also in consultation with members and delegates across a variety of APS workplaces as they consider which agencies they will look to next to increase pressure on the government. As they are identified, applications for Protected Action Ballots will be lodged with the Fair Work Commission.
Quotes attributable to Melissa Donnelly, CPSU National Secretary:
“The Albanese Labor Government made a commitment to the public service prior to their election to become a model employer and to rebuild the APS after a decade of damage and destruction.
“We have a unique opportunity with service-wide bargaining to negotiate a package that brings together 160,000 employees across 103 different agencies after what has been an incredibly challenging decade for public sector workers. But an offer with 51 per cent support doesn’t do that.
“The CPSU has rejected this offer because we know that we can and we should be aiming higher than 50 per cent, plus one.
“There is strong support for the conditions package that has been negotiated, including the industry leading working from home rights, increases to paid parental leave, the reintroduction of job security provisions and increased casual loading rates.
“But in an environment where every APS worker is feeling extreme cost of living pressures, the current pay offer doesn’t cut it.
“Our members are ready to increase pressure as needed to secure a better outcome on pay.
“In Services Australia, union members will be participating in a 24-hour strike, and further applications for Protected Action Ballots will be shortly lodged in other APS workplaces.
