More than 6500 Australian Federal Police officers face an effective wage freeze as just 280 of their colleagues remain locked in industrial stalemate with the force's leadership.
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A senior commander has hit back at claims by the main workplace union, the AFP Association that the planned axing of benefits for officers working flexible hours was grossly unfair, with the leadership insisting some officers would be better off under their proposal.
Meanwhile, frustration is growing within the law enforcement agency, as the ongoing fight has left its 6500 staff without a pay rise since 2015.
Hundreds of ACT Policing officers, who patrol Canberra's streets, and their support staff are among those caught up in the dispute.
The AFP wants to scrap an entitlement of 35 per cent to the base salary for elite officers in protection, surveillance and counter-terrorism roles, working up to 10 hours overtime a week.
The money, paid regardless of the hours worked, is topped up with another 22 per cent of base salary as a reward for working flexible hours.
Adding the two entitlements together, the officers' yearly wage can be boosted by 57 per cent.
The majority of the 280 officers receiving these payments are on base salaries of $83,555, which is bumped up to $131,181 by the added bonuses.
But their commanders want to replace the 35 per cent bonus with overtime paid by the hour, with Deputy Commissioner Mike Phelan saying the proposal was logical.
"We're making sure that everyone who does above 40 hours a week is getting paid for it, hour for hour and we don't want to pay for hours that aren't worked, which just makes sense," he said.
"If someone works the whole 10 hours extra than they'll actually get more money than they did before."
Mr Phelan, a former ACT police commander, said he understood the frustration of the thousands of employees caught in the middle of the dispute of staff, which had stalled the signing of a new enterprise agreement and resulting pay rise.
But he said the AFP was hamstrung in trying to progress the talks because the AFPA had recently taken action in the Fair Work Commission seeking to separate the 280 officers onto their own enterprise agreement.
"The fair work order effectively delays our ability to go to a vote," Mr Phelan said.
"And that makes sense, given it would be totally inappropriate for us to go ahead and do a vote while we have an action on foot for Fair Work Australia that seeks to carve out a particular cohort of employees."
But an AFPA spokeswoman denied the union's Fair Work action had delayed negotiations.
She also defended the position that the 280 officers should receive both composite payments, rather than hour-by-hour overtime.
"The Fair Work Commission was clear that the EA [enterprise agreement] bargaining process could, and should, continue while this matter is considered," she said.
"In terms of the composite payment versus overtime, the bonus allows people some tangible stability and gives the AFP much more capacity to deploy people.
"They could work 70 hours one week and 27 the next, so this system allows them to work effectively with the uncertainty and their operational demands."
She said the AFPA had no trust that the AFP would pay for additional hours worked.
