The Australian Public Service Commission has outlined the common conditions it plans to discuss with representatives as a "starting point" as negotiations for a sector-wide bargaining agreement get under way.
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Formal public service-wide bargaining will begin before the end of March, deputy commissioner Peter Riordan expecting the process to be completed by the end of July.
The proposed conditions include common pay increases, employment types and casual conversion, leave entitlements and flexible working arrangements.
The Albanese government has pledged to instate fairer pay and conditions across the public service, but the main public sector union is pursuing an initial pay bump of 9 per cent in the first year, 6 per cent in year two and 5 per cent in year three, plus a cost-of-living adjustment payment.
The Community and Public Sector Union is also asking for a pay equity mechanism to bring up the lowest-paid employees.
Discussions are expected to formally begin on March 30.
The Workplace Relations Bargaining Taskforce within the APSC said it recognised the importance of genuine bargaining to improve pay and conditions and was committed to progressing APS bargaining.
Mr Riordan said the proposed list of common conditions was "ambitious" but reflected the open mind of the commission entering the process.
"I want this process to be a wide-ranging and meaningful discussion that considers the contemporary needs of our workforce, and the changing nature of the workplace," he said in a statement.
"In addition to the proposed list of common conditions, service-wide bargaining will also discuss pay increases and a mechanism to reduce pay fragmentation across the APS."
The deputy commissioner expected not everything would be neatly wrapped up in a few months with discussions expected later in the year for the more contentious aspects.
"We may not resolve the full list of proposed common conditions in the first round of service-wide bargaining, due to be completed by the end of July," Mr Riordan said.
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"We will reserve for future rounds conditions that remain unresolved at the conclusion of this round of bargaining. Those future rounds will benefit from the work and discussions we're starting now."
Bargaining negotiations will occur across two stages over the coming months with the first stage focusing on what conditions can be applied to every agency.
The second stage will cover agency-level conditions and is expected to focus on the more operational aspects of an agency.
Full list of the APSC's proposed common conditions:
- Definitions - common language across EAs
- Duration of agreements or common pay increase dates
- Statement on respect at work
- NES precedence clause
- Employment types
- Casual conversion
- Hours of work
- Flex time for APS and equivalent level employees
- Time off in lieu for executive level employees
- Flexible working arrangements
- Wellbeing
- Recovery of overpayments
- Business travel (domestic)
- Remote localities
- Incremental advancement
- Salary on promotion and commencement
- Higher duties allowance
- Worker responsibility allowance
- Relocation assistance
- Overtime
- Shift penalties
- Superannuation
- Portability of leave
- Annual leave
- Personal leave
- Purchased leave
- Sabbatical leave
- Parental leave
- Long service leave
- Family and domestic violence
- Cultural & NAIDOC leave
- Defence reservists leave
- Defence service sick leave
- Community service leave
- Compassionate and bereavement leave
- Public holidays
- Christmas closedown
- Lactation breaks
- Leave without pay
- Re-crediting of leave
- Study assistance
- Redundancy, retrenchment and redeployment
- Separation
- Consultation
- Delegates rights
- Dispute resolution
- Individual flexibility arrangements
- Supported wage system
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