Three of the largest Commonwealth employers could become the latest agencies to give pay rises to staff and skip negotiations for new workplace deals.
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Defence Department public servants are voting this week on an offer to lift their wages and ditch talks to replace its expiring enterprise agreement.
Services Australia, the largest federal department, has asked its public servants for their views on a similar proposal as its workplace deal nears its expiry.
The Agriculture Department is also considering offering its 5000 staff pay rises instead of another round of bargaining.
Defence public servants began voting on Thursday and have another four days to accept or reject an offer from bosses to lift pay by 2 per cent annually for three years.
Public servants would keep conditions in their expiring enterprise deal, an offer made under laws allowing "workplace determinations".
The department would trail only the Australian Taxation Office as the largest federal employer to skip workplace negotiations, marking a shift from the turbulent last round of bargaining.
A decision to avoid negotiating at Services Australia and the Agriculture Department would mean four of the five largest departments, or close to half the public service's workforce, had chosen not to bargain.
Staff at the Infrastructure Department, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the Royal Australian Mint and Sport Australia also chose pay rises without a new enterprise agreement.
Unions say the emerging trend shows Coalition government restrictions have broken bargaining in the public service.
Professionals Australia, representing Commonwealth scientists and engineers in Defence, said members were frustrated they couldn't bargain properly.
The department's offer was another sign workplace negotiations in the public service weren't working.
The union's ACT director Dale Beasley said staff didn't want "to play on a field where the government has rewritten the rules of the game and removed the goal posts".
"We're worried that people will leave for more lucrative roles where they feel more valued. That can't be good for the Defence mission," he said.
Mr Beasley said employees and bosses had no faith they could achieve a good deal with the government's bargaining restrictions.
"This is a story about the largest gaming of the enterprise bargaining system since it was introduced."
The growing number of "workplace determinations" raised questions about the future of industrial relations in the public service.
"Getting a pay rise via a determination seems like a hassle free option but there's a lot of murky water around what the future looks like with the growing number of expired enterprise agreements," Mr Beasley said.
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Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Melissa Donnelly said the Coalition's approach to bargaining was "fundamentally broken".
"It's ideological, it's not productive, it's not working, and it's contributing to staff dissatisfaction and problems in service delivery to the community," she said.
"Staff in Defence absolutely know where to point the finger on this and it's directly at the Morrison government.
"It's no wonder that many staff feel like this kind of determination is the best option at this point. It's on the government to restore a fair and genuine bargaining system.
"At the same time where members and delegates want to move forward with a workplace determination in the meantime, we will support them in doing so."
Under rules for bureaucrats bargaining with their employers, agencies must fund pay rises with savings rather than inflating fees for customers or using funding allocated to other projects.
They can claim savings by cutting conditions from workplace deals that the Australian Public Service Commission believes makes agencies less efficient.
The Agriculture Department is considering a workplace determination giving staff annual 2 per cent pay rises for three years, starting from 2020.
A department spokeswoman said its first goal was to adopt workplace arrangements "that best suit our employees and our business needs".
"The department conducted dozens of roundtable feedback sessions with staff around the country to hear their views on our enterprise agreement, and to discuss the options available to the department for future workplace arrangements."
When asked about workplace determinations, the public service commission said the government's bargaining rules gave agencies and their employees flexibility to choose the best arrangement that suited their needs.
"Ultimately, agencies and employees make the decision on whether it is in their interest or not," it said.