The powerful Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has blown a fuse over the parlous state of pay for sparkies working for the Department of Parliamentary Services at Parliament House in Canberra, with electricians walking off the job for a full day on Monday as the industrial row escalates.
The ETU has become the latest employee representative to roll industrial action against their Australian Public Service employer, which has seen government electricians joining other trade and technical staff represented by the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) to reject the government’s pay offer as inadequate.
The strikes, protests and pickets at Parliament House are directly targeting politicians in an effort to break the deadlock. The Australian Federal Police Association is also preparing to vote on taking protected action over pay.
The industrial action hitting the Hill sits in sharp contrast to the Australian Public Service Commission’s marketing that service-wide bargaining has been a success with the vast majority of agencies voting up the new APS enterprise agreement and its 11.2% pay increase over three years.
The showpiece of the new agreement is the codification of flexible work conditions in the deal, but the work-from-home concessions are functionally useless for trades, on-site and field staff in working for the federal government.
The unions have accused DPS and the APSC of sticking them with sub-standard tradie pay that is so uncompetitive it prices their employer out of the market, resulting in salaried staff being forced to work beside far higher-paid contractors.
ETU NSW & ACT secretary Allen Hicks said some full-time electrical employees working for DPS were paid about $30,000 below the industry average.
“The workers who keep the lights on at Parliament House are being blocked out when it comes to fair wages,” Hicks said.
“The Department of Parliamentary Services’ refusal to lift wages for its full-time trades staff is senseless. Because permanent trades staff’s wages are so low, positions are left vacant, yet the department is willing to outsource the roles at a much higher rate of pay.”
Hicks said morale had hit “rock bottom” and that sparkies “are fed up.”
“It’s a kick in the guts to have contractor staff who’re paid competitive industry rates working alongside trade-qualified permanent employees who’re earning the equivalent of a contractor apprentice.”
The ETU has a strong point in that pay rises for sparkies in the construction sector were settled at 16.25% over three years in the latest 2022-2025 enterprise agreement.
There is also a broader question as to how the government’s stated return to sovereign manufacturing in Australia will decide on pay rates, especially when many of those jobs are likely to be defence or transport-related.
Minister for government services Bill Shorten, himself a former secretary of the Australian Workers Union, last Thursday cautioned public service leaders that they needed to overcome the APS’ “caste system” where policy staff were more highly valued than service delivery staff.
Tradies would theoretically sit below staff who drive a desk in that system, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have local clout in the Australian Capital Territory, where unions like the CFMEU and Professionals Australia have had their members elected to parliament on a Labor ticket.
The CFMEU is also a major venue owner and significant private sector employer in the ACT via its interest in the Tradies Group, which includes a registered club of the same name, the Quality Hotel and an assortment of sports facilities.
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