No choice, no deal over APS wages. CPSU says Ben Morton is 'disrespecting' public servants

In an interview with The Canberra Times, the Public Service Minister Ben Morton issued a wages challenge to the CPSU, to essentially choose between previous wages policy and the current one, a floating limit tied to private sector pay increases, if it did not like it.

Mr Morton also indicated he would "reluctantly" consider returning to the controversial Tony Abbott-era wage rise cap, last set at 2 per cent, if the union preferred the older policy.

CPSU National Secretary Melissa Donnelly says no deal.

"The proposition that APS employees need to choose between two bad wage policies from this government is I think ridiculous and relatively disrespectful," she said.

"What APS employees want to be able to do is genuinely negotiate on wages and conditions that have the capacity to deliver real wage increases."

The current year-old wages policy, brought in by Mr Morton while assistant minister for the public service, allows public servants to negotiate remuneration rises greater or lower than 2 per cent depending on private sector wage growth and broader economic conditions. The key is that public sector wage rises would never rise above the private sector.

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In August, a maximum 1.9 per cent pay rise was announced based on the latest wage price index. The minister expects it will now grow in line with private sector wages, but the union says not knowing what to negotiate is one of its main points.

"So employees who are considering enterprise agreement offers, that means they don't know what the pay rise is in future years, particularly in year two and three of the agreement," Ms Donnelly said.

"But the reality we're seeing at the moment, which the minister didn't mention in his interview, is that some agencies are actually proposing a double pay cap so that they seek to limit the wage price index that would be payable within their enterprise agreement or determination to no more than 2 per cent. So it doesn't actually reflect the reality right across the APS that people would be guaranteed the private sector wage price index."

The minister has accused the CPSU of being disconnected from its membership and is querying the union's continued complaints.

"I'm not planning to revert back to the pre-2020 policy but if that's what the CPSU are asking me to consider then I will reluctantly consider it," Mr Morton said.

"They need to be upfront and honest about their position. I understand that constant conflict drives their membership but it's disappointing because so much more can be achieved by working together and by putting aside these phony political debates."

However, the union's Melissa Donnelly is throwing the challenge back to the minister, particularly in a tough jobs market.

"The idea that it's only a choice between a cap or a floating cap, I think it's disrespectful," she said.

"What we currently have from this government is bargaining policy that freezes enterprise agreements in time that prevents the APS from innovating on conditions and fails to offer guaranteed real wage increases.

"And as the labour market tightens, the question really has to be put, what does that mean for the APS and what's the minister going to do to ensure that the APS is able to to attract the best and the brightest?"

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