ACT firefighters have lashed out at an ''offensive'' 11th hour pay deal, and have warned that the rank-and-file is considering industrial action.
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The ACT's firefighters have been offered a 2 per cent pay rise every year for the next four years, sparking heated criticism of what they describe as the ''worst wage offer'' to public sector workers in the country.
The United Firefighters Union, which has 100 per cent representation among ACT firefighters, said it waited up to 10 weeks for the ACT government to respond to its initial pay claim.
But the government says negotiations, which began formally in mid May, could not have begun any earlier.
It says the timing was forced by the election and its proximity to the Christmas holidays, as well as an overhaul in the way the bargaining process operates.
''The government anticipates that, once started, the negotiations will proceed at an appropriate pace and should finish around September,'' a spokesman said.
''It should not be rushed.''
The government has also given firefighters a ''qualified agreement'' to backdate pay rises to July 1.
The 2 per cent pay rise was flatly rejected by union negotiators, and there is only four weeks left until the current workplace agreement expires.
''We're putting options in front of our members for potential protected industrial action ballots, and perhaps the need to take industrial action,'' UFU ACT branch secretary David Livingstone said.
''The reality is, we've stood ready for nearly three months now, and the ACT government has come to us in the 11th hour with the worst wage offer from any government in the country,'' he said.
Recently, Canberra nurses lashed out at the same 2 per cent pay offer, which they rejected as ''disrespectful'' and ''insulting''.
The Australian Nursing Federation refused to discuss industrial action before the end of its current workplace agreement in four weeks.
Other areas of the public sector workforce have also criticised the 2 per cent offer, and questioned the extensive delays in putting it on the table.
But a Justice and Community Safety Directorate spokesman said the offer was ''consistent with our budgetary capacity in these tight economic times''.
''We need to do this to maintain our strong economic position,'' the spokesman said.
Tensions between the government and firefighters boiled over in June last year, prompting the UFU to take the extraordinary step of formally breaking ties with the ACT Labor Party.
Mr Livingstone said the poor pay offer was part of a continuing attitude of contempt towards the territory's firefighters.
He said the union would not look at finding efficiencies in the fire service until it was offered a wage increase in line with cost-of-living rises.
''We've also got to keep in mind that a 2 per cent wage offer is the lowest offer from any state government to public sector workers and firefighters around the country,'' Mr Livingstone said.
''If these firefighters can get a better rate of pay somewhere else, that's where they're going to go.''
The ACT government recently announced it would fund a review into efficiency within the Emergency Services Agency in next week's budget.
That review was welcomed by the UFU, which said it must look at ''holistic funding arrangements'' to ensure money was making its way to firefighters on the front line.