More than 500 Australian Border Force officials will be stood down without pay on Wednesday in another escalation of the tit-for-tat industrial conflict at the controversial agency.
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The public servants working on freight and cargo inspections around the country were planning limited stop-work actions on Wednesday, which had protected action status granted by the Fair Work Commission.
But instead, the CPSU union members will be sent home without pay for the whole day in what their union says is a "nasty" move by the management of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
The department's public servants, along much of the Commonwealth bureaucracy, is locked in a bitter and protracted pay dispute with the federal government and have been engaged in industrial action for several months.
The union upped the ante last week, announcing a one-day stoppage for all of its members working at the nation's international airports in a move tipped to cause serious disruption to air travellers.
The department retaliated promptly by issuing 'no work no pay' notices to employees, declaring that anyone taking part in a work ban would lose a full day's pay, regardless of the length of the stoppage.
DIBP also pledged it would invoke anti-bullying protocols allowing disciplinary action if it believed that public servants were being pressured by colleagues to take strike action.
CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said the news of Wednesday's stand-down had only heightened the "defiance" among union members at Border Force.
"Our phones have been running hot since the Department made their stand down threat," Ms Flood said on Tuesday morning.
"The strong view of Border Force staff is that they will absolutely not be intimidated and will proceed with industrial action.
"All the department has achieved is to force these workers to escalate their work bans into what amounts to a management-initiated strike."
Leave applications for annual leave, flex leave, purchased leave, miscellaneous leave or long service leave made before and during PIA will be considered in light of operational and coverage requirements, in accordance with the Department's EA and the relevant leave policies. If an employee is recalled to duty while on approved leave, or the employee's approved leave is cancelled, the employee will be provided with as much notice as possible and may be eligible for reimbursement of reasonable costs incurred as per the EA.
A department spokesperson said the bans notified by the CPSU were disappointing in light of a recently revised bargaining policy.
The bans "encouraged" a concerted effort by union members to impede the movement of low risk goods and to delay the release of legitimately cleared goods to the community.
This created a congested environment causing major disruption to cargo and mail streams.
"The department does not see these actions as minor limited work bans when it goes to the heart of the department's obligation to keep the flow of trade moving while addressing community risk," the spokesperson said.
"No employees will be sent home but the department is not prepared to accept these actions as work.
"The bans could also lead to a breach of Australia's robust border security arrangements.
" Under these circumstances, the department simply cannot stand by and watch the CPSU's intended impacts being imposed on the community without exercising the legitimate responses authorised by the Fair Work Act."
