Parliamentary staffers vote down pay offer, first under new bargaining policy

It's the first enterprise bargaining process since the government introduced its new bargaining policy that ties any wage increases to the Wage Price Index.

Advisors and staffers to members of parliament are covered by the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act and enterprise bargaining is conducted with the Finance Department.

After months of negotiations, 59 per cent of staff on the deal voted no to the offer from the department.

The current agreement continues until a new agreement is reached.

"I will inform employees of the next steps in due course," Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said in a circular to staff on Wednesday.

The offer from Finance included a 1.7 per cent pay increase for electorate officers and assistants, 0.85 per cent increase for advisers and no pay rise for a year for senior advisers and chiefs of staff.

Aligning pay increases with the Wage Price Index means that if the economy went backwards and the index went down, there would be no increase, or even pay could go backwards.

The wage price index rose 1.4 per cent over the year to September 2020, and there is little optimism for rises in coming years as the economy recovers from the pandemic-induced recession.

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Alistair Waters, acting national secretary for the Community and Public Sector Union, said the offer would have left staffers in a precarious position.

"The agreement offer could have seen pay cuts with no improvements to any conditions," Mr Waters said.

"With this new policy, the Coalition Government shows its disregard for the growing problem of wage stagnation in Australia, when we need to kickstart the economy."

The government suspended negotiations for the new enterprise agreement in February and only engaged with unions and staff again in October when compelled to do so by the Fair Work Commission.

Mr Waters accused the government of attempting to sneak the deal through by giving staffers the minimum notice for the vote.

"Government staffers couldn't stomach their own bosses bargaining policy. This is a clear sign that it will fail, hurting workers and the economy along the way," he said.