Flexible work, including working from home, to be 'critical test' for Albanese government in APS pay and conditions talks, CPSU says

APS-wide negotiations on pay and conditions are currently underway, with unions, agencies, employees and the Australian Public Service Commission striving to reach a deal by July 31.

Parties are meeting weekly and are due to discuss flexible work, including working from home, on Thursday.

The Community and Public Sector Union has called for working from home rights to be included in enterprise agreements, and for caps on the number of days employees can work from home to be scrapped.

While the government has signalled its readiness to embrace flexible work, issuing advice that all roles in the public service can include flexibility over when and where employees work, it has not detailed its position in response to the CPSU's claim.

Advice from the Secretaries Board released earlier in April noted that agencies could still put in place "benchmarks around the extent of face-to-face contact, such as the number of days to be spent in the office".

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"The negotiation on flexible work is the first critical test of the Albanese Labor government's commitment to becoming a model employer," CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly said in a statement on Wednesday.

Ms Donnelly said Thursday's meeting would be an "early indicator as to whether or not the government is ready to lead the way" on flexible work, and create a workforce which embraced those who face barriers to traditional work, including people with disability, those with caring responsibilities and people in rural and regional areas.

"It is no secret that the APS is facing an attraction and retention crisis, and that current APS employees are bearing the brunt of that with burn out, turnover and workloads all sitting higher than they should be," Ms Donnelly said.

"But fully embracing flexible work and opening the doors of APS employment to new parts of the population could be a game changer."

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