A pay deal previously dubbed the best in the Australian Public Service has been strengthened after the federal government relaxed its tight limits on pay rises.
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Public servants at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will now vote on a revised pay increase of six per cent over three years.
The former offer of 4.5 per cent was advertised by DFAT management as having no downsides earlier this year, despite union concerns it could lead to a loss of overseas allowances.
DFAT secretary Peter Varghese said the department would "take maximum advantage" of the increased pay cap and assured staff it would not be paid for by cuts to conditions or benefits.
"The pay offer we are putting on the table is now the revised maximum under the government's policy – namely six per cent over three years – and will not be paid for through the trade-off of conditions," he said.
"This will be paid for by the productivity gains generated through our broader process reforms and it will not involve a reduction of conditions."
During a senate estimates hearing, senior DFAT officials said reducing the proposed enterprise agreement from 102 pages to 42 was simply a matter of streamlining the process.
The Community and Public Sector Union have argued the streamlining will result in a loss of protections for allegedly underperforming workers, as well as the ability to enforce their allowance entitlements.
Mr Varghese also told the hearing many DFAT staffers had been burdened with survey fatigue.
According to the latest DFAT annual report, 3430 public servants completed a Pulse survey during February and March - a 58 per cent response rate.
"The department continued a program of staff surveys to monitor staff sentiment, track performance and inform internal reform processes," the report said.
The Pulse survey revealed the challenges of integrating AusAID into DFAT with significant pressure placed on the department's human resources and information and communications technology.
In July, Mr Varghese said the survey results painted a "mixed picture" of the department with more than a fifth of staff disclosing ICT and HR did not help them perform their duties.
A further 58 per cent of DFAT staff completed the annual APS census held between May and June.
More than 160 DFAT staffers have accepted voluntary redundancies in the past 12 months, according to the latest DFAT annual report. Another eight SES employees exited the department through incentives to retire.
The number of graduates to be hired by the department has remained steady with 34 policy and 8 corporate graduates set to start work in 2016.
The DFAT graduate positions are notoriously competitive with the department receiving 1900 applications for the policy stream and 522 for the corporate stream this year.
