Gallagher hopeful APS pay deal can be settled ‘soon’ despite industrial action

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Public service minister Katy Gallagher remains optimistic the government and unions will soon reach an agreement on a pay deal for APS employees.

Last night, the CPSU announced Services Australia staff will embark on full-day strikes from October 9 after it rejected the government’s pay offer of 11.2% over three years. The pay offer was supported by a bare majority of union members in a voluntary poll.

Despite the CPSU calling for an increase of 20% over three years, Gallagher said the government’s offer was “affordable and reasonable”.

“We have worked really hard to improve the conditions and their substantial improvement to conditions in this package,” Gallagher told Canberra radio on Friday. “The pay offer we’ve got is more than double the pay offers that were given in the previous decade. 

“So I feel like we have come to the table and put a good package on it.”

Gallagher acknowledged the CPSU had “options available to them, including taking industrial action if they choose”.

Asked if she can understand why many union members believe the pay offer isn’t enough, Gallagher said her government is “trying to clean up the mess of the last decade in the public service”.

“Part of that is trying to put in place a much better arrangement for the employees of the APS, which is what we’re trying to do with this agreement. But I would also say we cannot recover an entire decade of failure to engage from the previous government.”

Gallagher said she would urge unions to outline “the pathway forward”.

“The bargaining team met yesterday [and] I understand it [was] a very short meeting. But at this point in time, other than having some industrial action in Services Australia, there isn’t a clear path forward about how we are going to resolve it.

“We need to resolve it so that people can get their pay and access improved conditions.

“There are some really low-paid workers that we’re trying to fix up in terms of pay parity in this agreement … they could get up to around 20% through this deal. And I don’t want to see them wait any longer to get some of the fairness that they deserve.”

In the interview, Gallagher also addressed concerns that issues such as those surrounding Mike Pezzullo, who stood down as Home Affairs secretary this week over allegations of inappropriate communications with lobbyists and political operatives, were impacting APS morale.

“The way the public service has been treated and some of the issues, including the royal commission into robodebt, no doubt has an effect on morale across the APS,” she said.

“But it’s not just one thing … it’s been a whole range of decisions, including the fact that it wasn’t able really to do the job it was being asked to do through lack of staffing and lack of respect under the former government.

“The APS has had some shining moments, particularly through COVID when people realised just how important the APS was. But the APS reform work, building capability, having integrity at the centre of everything the APS does, ensuring there’s trust in the public service with the Australian community – they’re all big parts of the work underway.”