Border Force and Agriculture Department public servants say they will hand out 1 million flyers at the nation's airports, and other "contact points", seeking public support as the pay stalemate in most of the Australian Public Service limps into its second year.

The public servants, who caused low-level disruptions at airports around the country with stop-work action in June, stepped up their campaign on Thursday.

Employees of the departments of Veterans' Affairs and Defence are also involved in the flyer action which will spread to other parts of the public service in coming weeks, according to the Community and Public Sector Union.

The union's leadership says thousands of passengers entering or leaving the country each day will be handed statements by uniformed Border Force, Immigration or quarantine officers operating under protected industrial action.

The pay grievance is particularly sharp among Customs officers, some of whom stand to lose up to $8000 as conditions, penalties and entitlements they have traditionally enjoyed are stripped away under the proposed pay structure for the newly formed Australian Border Force.

Customs officers, whose agency has been merged with Immigration, have proven themselves willing to walk off the job in the past, and went on strike for a better pay outcome in the last bargaining round in 2011 and 2012.

Nine enterprise agreements, negotiated under the tough bargaining rules, have now been voted up in the public sector and Public Service Minister Eric Abetz has been urging the vast majority of public servants, who are still locked in stalemate, to follow suit.

But there are more than 100 agencies and departments, employing the vast majority of public servants, who have been unable to agree a deal with their workers including the giant department of Human Services, Defence and the Australian Taxation Office.

Senator Abetz's office was approached on Thursday for comment on the latest escalation.

CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood repeated her union's position on Thursday that the treatment of the Border Force workers and their counterparts in other departments was "appalling".

"The Abbott government has slashed over 17,000 public sector jobs and now it is trying to cut the rights, conditions and take home pay of its workforce," the union leader said.

"Frustrated by the government's cuts and delays, staff are taking their campaign directly to the general public, letting them know about the Abbott government's assault on jobs, conditions and take home pay.

"We are asking Australians who use these services to take a minute to think about the important work these people do and then reflect on the appalling way the Abbott government is treating them."

Union strategists believe the border workers at air and sea ports are more likely to garner public sympathy for their grievances than their desk-bound colleagues at departmental headquarters in Canberra.

"Under this government's failed bargaining policy, many staff in Immigration and Border Force stand to lose up to $8000 a year through cuts to allowances," Ms Flood said,

"Immigration, Border Force, and Agriculture staff have some of the toughest and most challenging jobs in the public service.

"They literally put their lives on the line to secure our borders and protect Australia from foreign biosecurity risks and pests."