The department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's 2400 officials were told late last week they will be expected to work an extra half-hour each week, an increase of 1.3 per cent to their official working hours, in return for the 0.7 per cent deal.

PM&C bosses released their offer in two stages last week, unveiling the cuts to conditions and entitlements two days after the pay offer of 2.17 per cent over three years.

The task of agreeing to a new pay deal is complicated by the need to replace 10 agreements covering workers drafted into the department from across the Commonwealth government in PM&C's dramatic expansion in 2013.

Senior manager Ben Neal told staff, including a large number of Indigenous affairs officials, there would be cuts to a range of conditions that would impact workers in Indigenous communities such as a tighter eligibility for remote locality allowance.

Staff will also lose a day's ceremonial and cultural leave, have their carers' leave allowance tightened, and graduate recruits will advance more slowly up the career ladder.

While unveiling the second tranche of the offer, Mr Neal said he and his colleagues were "streamlining" the enterprise bargaining agreements by stripping out a large number of conditions and moving them into regulation.

"The draft EA has been developed in line with the [Abbott government's] bargaining policy over the past few months," Mr Neal wrote.

"It is streamlined, concise and removes unnecessary duplication.

"We have drafted the EA in plain English so that it's easier to understand than the 10 agreements it will replace.

"The draft EA contains clauses required by legislation as well as clauses that provide entitlements to employees.

"It does not include clauses that would impose restrictive work practices or other arrangements that confine the operations of the department, the APS or legislation."

But CPSU President Alistair Waters was scathing of the offer.

"Workers in the PM's department face being hit by a double whammy," he said.

"First of all they face a low-ball offer with so many strings attached that some workers would have to wait up to 12 years to advance through a single classification level.

"The cuts in this agreement are worse than we first thought; it's been quite literally shorn of its conditions.

"The initial feedback from members has been incredibly negative.

"Under this complex and nasty proposal, workers stand to lose much more than they'd gain, which is what we have come to expect from deals made under this government's unworkable bargaining policy."

A departmental spokesman said on Monday that the changes to remote area allowances would continue to be paid.

"In the vast majority of cases this would be a higher cash allowance than under current arrangements because it would roll in some existing entitlements, including leave fares and additional annual leave days," the spokesman said.

"This would provide staff with greater flexibility in how and when they take their leave."