Unions, experts respond to government bargaining position ahead of APS-wide pay and conditions negotiations

The Australian Public Service Commission on Tuesday published its framework for talks, which are due to begin on March 30.

The commission, agencies and unions will try to agree on an APS-wide pay rise and improved conditions for the next three years by July 31, before the expiry of an interim arrangement.

While the commission will not provide a headline pay increase offer until after the federal budget in May, it outlined six principles which would guide it to reestablish the APS as an employer of choice.

Those included: becoming a model employer, unifying the Commonwealth Public Service, improving mobility, attraction and retention, administrative efficiency, fairness and equity and sustainability.

"The government's bargaining policy does represent an improved approach from the previous government, including the removal of caps on pay rises, removal of the previous "no enhancements" rule, and a commitment to genuine bargaining on all pay and conditions matters," Community and Public Sector Union National Secretary Melissa Donnelly said.

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The "no enhancements rule" refers to bargaining restrictions which prevented overall improvements in conditions under the Coalition government.

The public sector union has pitched a 9 per cent pay boost in the first year of the new agreement, which should be in place by August 31.

"The CPSU pay claim is ambitious because it has to be," Ms Donnelly said.

"Ten years of intentional erosion of the capacity and capability of the Australian public service means that the task of rebuilding is a big one."

Branch secretary at the Australian Services Union tax branch Jeff Lapidos raised concerns about restrictions around pay increases.

Agencies will not be able to negotiate further pay rises at the individual bargaining stage, which will follow APS-wide negotiations.

"The ASU is disturbed by the government confining agencies to pay increases determined by a government pay offer or the outcome of service-wide bargaining," Mr Lapidos said.

"Tax officers need substantial pay increases that offset past pay freezes that occurred due to us protecting our workplace rights and conditions of employment."

We need to negotiate pay with the Australian Taxation Office, not with the APSC."

While APS-wide bargaining will be a positive step, and good news for unions wit less access to smaller agencies, improving commonality of conditions across the sector will be difficult.

"We've now had several decades where conditions have diverged, in some cases quite significantly. Certainly in terms of the pay rates for particular classifications," UNSW Canberra Professor in the School of Business Michael O'Donnell said.

"That's going to be a considerable challenge if there are attempts to to bring that back to a common classification scale."

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