Tony Abbott's public service department admits it is struggling to come up with a wage deal for its workers tough enough to fit the government's hardline bargaining policies.
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The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet pulled out of scheduled pay talks on Tuesday, citing difficulty in getting official approval for a proposal it could put to staff, and will try again to discuss wages in two weeks.
After absorbing hundreds of indigenous affairs bureaucrats from all over the public service, PM&C must now try to make sense of nine separate enterprise agreements in place for workers in the expanded department.
The department conceded on Tuesday it was a "challenge" building a new enterprise agreement for a department that had almost quadrupled in size, but said it was getting on with the job.
There are glaring pay gaps of up to $19,000 a year between public servants on the same pay grade in the department, and simmering resentment among hundreds of new recruits working in unfashionable Woden, in Canberra's south, against the department's bosses, who base themselves 10 kilometres away in leafy Barton.
Under the government's bargaining policy, the Public Service Commission and the Finance Department must approve any offer, ensuring it meets the terms of the policy, before it is made to a department's workforce, and PM&C is struggling to get the tick on even basic conditions.
Department bosses cannot get approval for remote location allowances for public servants working with far-flung indigenous communities because it would be regarded as an improvement on "core" PM&C conditions, which were designed for elite bureaucrats who rarely left central Canberra.
Attempts to reduce redundancy rights for the new arrivals are causing unease in the ranks, according the department's main union, the Community and Public Sector Union.
The union's deputy national president, Alistair Waters, said the uncertainty over the new agreement, nearly four months after the old agreement expired, was making PM&C staff uneasy.
"The position that the department is bargaining is creating significant unease, deep unease, among staff, particularly those working in the indigenous affairs function," Mr Waters said.
"There's no progress on pay and staff in the indigenous affairs are seeing that their job security is being weakened with it being made easier for the employer to involuntarily retrench staff.
"A key range of conditions including support for workers in remote communities just isn't being clarified for them
"All of this highlights the unworkable nature of the government's bargaining position."
A departmental spokesman said PM&C was committed to building a new workplace agreement "clause by clause".
"The department is committed to negotiating a single enterprise agreement for its workforce. This requires us to bring together 10 sets of terms and conditions.
"The department's approach to this challenge has been to build the new agreement in collaboration with staff and their representatives, clause by clause.
"Negotiations have not yet focused on remuneration matters.
"The department takes its commitment to good faith bargaining seriously and will not be commenting on matters that have not yet been considered during negotiations."
