The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has backed the government’s third pay offer to the Australian Public Service, saying it will now recommend the sweetened deal to its members in a move that is intended to get a deal over the line before Christmas.
Banking the offer as a win after just one full-day strike at Services Australia, the offer will now go to a ballot of CPSU members, which, if successful, will put the deal on the runaway to being cleared by the Fair Work Commission.
The deal sweetener that has changed the union’s mind is an offer to effectively shift the commencement of the previous 11.2% offer over three years from 14 March 2024 to December 21 this year.
However, the extra money is essentially a cash payment without superannuation or actually backdating the commencement of the new workplace agreement and indicates the government was willing to work behind the scenes with the CPSU to prevent further escalation and disruption.
It is understood other unions now in bargaining with the government were blindsided by the enhanced offer and its timing.
Because the government is negotiating with the CPSU as the lead union under an APS-wide negotiation — essentially pattern bargaining — smaller unions like the Taxation Officers’ Branch of the Australian Services Union, which could hold the line for a much meatier offer, essentially get stuck with whatever the CPSU accepts.
A previous CPSU non-binding membership poll on accepting the government’s offer of 11.2% over three years was expected by the government to easily get up; it drew a wincingly skinny 52% yes vote that indicated almost half of the members were dissatisfied with the offer.
That ballot did not have the weight of the union’s positive recommendation after the CPSU’s leadership opted not to make a recommendation.
The strong sentiment on money comes after a decade of agencies negotiating individually under the Coalition, which overtly paraded keeping a lid on APS wage growth as prudent fiscal management.
The CPSU on Thursday was telling members it made the right call to reject the last offer and quickly move to industrial action, saying it helped “to secure an improved pay deal for members while they weren’t risking delays to pay rises”.
“We had a narrow window to fight for a better pay deal where we would not be delaying bargaining outcomes, and we made the most of it,” said CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly.
“CPSU members trusted us to reject this offer and since then have voted up Protected Action Ballots, gone on strike and stood in solidarity with their colleagues [who are] taking industrial action across the APS.
“Together, CPSU members demanded more from the Albanese Government and together they have secured more.”
Donnelly is not wrong about the narrow window for the current CPSU executive to secure a deal. While a new member poll on the pay offer will run until Thursday, November 30, the CPSU’s own elections close on December 6, with all elected positions being contested by an internal group called Members United, which is challenging the incumbent Labor-affiliated executive.
Members United has also called for the CPSU to challenge public service minister Katy Gallagher’s senate preselection in the ACT to ensure CPSU members get a bigger say in negotiations with their employers.
A key element of the Members United campaign is a push against the union’s close links and formal affiliation to the Australian Labor Party, which, it says, conflicts with the industrial organisation when Labor is also the government.
Labor views the Members United as a Greens front aimed at flipping the union, an understandable sentiment given Labor has been forced to share power with the Greens in the Australian Capital Territory, from where Gallagher hails.
The ginger group is arguing that CPSU members could secure a better deal on conditions and pay if officeholders and leadership were drawn from grassroots public servants rather than Labor’s industrialised central casting machine that plots a standardised career path from the union movement through to politics.
In the event of another miscalculation being made about APS sentiment, and Members United being successful in taking the CPSU election, there will likely be as many recriminations inside Labor as outside of it.
The dice have been cast.
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