The Immigration Department has responded to a rejection by its workforce of a proposed new workplace deal by handing its senior executives a pay rise worth up to $6400 a year.
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About 186 members of the department's "senior executive service" have been given a 2 per cent pay rise by departmental secretary Mike Pezzullo the day after more than 10,000 of Immigration's public servants voted to reject a proposed new deal.
The department says the executives have been waiting for a pay rise for as long as the rank-and-file, who have not had an scheduled increase since 2013, nor did the high-flyers get a chance to vote on their pay and conditions.
The new deal will be worth an extra $6400 a year to a senior executive at the top of the elite band 3 level, taking their pay to more than $326,400 per year.
The department's annual report shows just more than $47 million was spent by DIBP on senior management remuneration in 2015-2016, including salaries, vehicles, redundancies, superannuation and other benefits.
Mr Pezzullo and Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg will not be included in the new round of pay rises.
Their pay packages, of $605,000 and $731,000 respectively, are set by the Remuneration Tribunal.
After Monday's no-vote on the proposed pay deal for the department's 13,300 rank-and-file public servants which would have paid an average of 2 per cent per year for the three-year deal, the dispute now enters a period of uncertainty.
The parties must submit to compulsory arbitration at the Fair Work Commission in a process that will be keenly watched across Commonwealth workplaces where about 97,000 public servants from a total workforce of about 150,000, have still not got new enterprise agreements in place.
An Immigration Department spokeswoman said the SES had been waiting a long time for their pay rise too and, unlike of their colleagues, had not had a chance to vote on a pay deal.
"SES pay rises in the department generally occur after EA negotiations have concluded," she said.
SES, like all employees have been awaiting the outcome of EA negotiations
"The general pay increase of 3 per cent offered to staff in the first year of a new EA has been voted down by a majority of staff, and a further delay will occur while an arbitrated outcome is determined by the Fair Work Commission.
"SES employees are not covered by the department's enterprise agreement or the collective bargaining process and have not had a say on the quantum or timing of any pay rises.
"In these circumstances, the secretary has decided to apply a 2 per cent increase to SES."
CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood described the SES pay rises as a "slap in the face" for frontline Immigration officials.
"This is yet another slap in the face to the frontline Immigration and Border Force staff working to combat terrorism and organised crime," she said.
"How can the department possibly justify giving a no-strings-attached pay rise to its highest paid executives while most frontline staff have their pay frozen and some even face pay cuts?"
