There was broad support for casuals in the federal public service to become ongoing staff during APS-wide bargaining last week, according to the latest workplace bargaining newsletter.
“It was widely supported that we look to convert casuals to ongoing employment, but also noted there was a role for casual and non-ongoing employment,” the update read.
Employee representatives made the case for ongoing employment to be the preferred form of employment in the APS, with the preference to be included in enterprise agreements.
Representatives rejected APS chief negotiator Peter Riordan’s proposal of 20% for common casual loading, with Riordan to return to the issue later. The update, noted Riordan, may also seek alternative proposals.
Casual loading is at least 25% for people working minimum wage, according to the Fair Work Commission.
As for how many public servants these decisions would affect, 4.9% of the 161,645 APS headcount are casuals as of December 2022.
Back to APS bargaining, other claims heard last week related to redeployment, retraining, redundancy, and separation.
APS-wide negotiations are set to continue this week, with Thursday set aside for remote working issues, including localities, regional jobs and relocation assistance.
Other topics which will be discussed include Respect@Work, safe workplaces, employee assistance programs, supported wage system, separation and blood donation and vaccination.
As previously reported by The Mandarin, the government has already tabled its pay disparity offer. The disparity offer reduces current average fragmentation from 26% to 18%.
The proposal set out both the minimum and maximum salary for each classification, with the APSC saying the proposal would benefit 48 APS agencies.
Those employees below the minimum base salary would get an additional pay rise in addition to the APS-wide pay offer.
The pay disparity between federal public service agencies has been a topic of discussion for some time, including by Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo back in February.
The CPSU spoke out about pay disparity within the APS earlier this week before the pay disparity offer was tabled.
One CPSU member at an APS4 level spoke about having to borrow money from friends to survive.
“I work at the lowest paid agency and it’s a joke trying to make ends meet just to pay my bills and most of the time I need to do that on credit card, then have to try to pay it off,” the APS4 said.
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