APS-wide pay: Katy Gallagher gets a headache as CPSU finds its voice

The main public sector union has knocked back a second pay offer for federal public servants, declaring "lukewarm support" from members insufficient to accept the 11.2 per cent increase over three years.

The pay deal is the cornerstone of a suite of reforms introduced by the Public Service Minister upon coming to government last year, aimed at restoring a dilapidated public service.

But, while the government has put forward proposals that will improve conditions and pay fragmentation between APS agencies, Senator Gallagher can't claim victory until that pay deal is printed in enterprise agreements.

She pointedly welcomed majority support from union members for the pay deal in her statement, in a veiled sign of frustration with her former employer.

The Community and Public Sector Union has raised some eyebrows with its decision not to embrace the government's second proposal, after a poll of members showed 51.9 per cent in support, 48.1 per cent opposed.

After a firebrand start to talks, calling for a 20 per cent pay rise, the union's confidence seems to have wavered. It stopped mentioning the claim (dismissed as "impossible" by Senator Gallagher) and instead said it would remain neutral on pay offers, letting members call the shots in votes.

Compare Ms Donnelly's opinion piece in The Canberra Times in March outlining the 20 per cent pay claim, and the statement she issued this week and her language appears watered down, procedural.

At the outset of bargaining, she issued a warning to the Albanese government that "you either choose to become a model employer, or you don't", detailing the decisions that stood between them and the much-trumpeted goal of attracting and retaining the best and brightest.

Now, her message reads as a gentle reminder to the government, that "the test" before them "isn't just being better than the Coalition government, it is to be a model employer - a goal they set for themselves."

But this reminder is one accompanied by applications to the Fair Work Commission for protected industrial action ballots, as the union decides 11.2 per cent won't cut it.

The move could be traced to pressure from within over what some members have perceived as lacklustre leadership through talks. But it is also a relatively low-risk move, for the moment.

With pay rises not due to come into effect until March 2024, the CPSU has some time before it runs the risk of delaying extra money to staff struggling under the rising cost of living.

It now faces its own test: How much disruption is it prepared to wreak to force the government's hand?

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