If you thought the Australian Public Service (APS) bargaining games finished just before Christmas, think again.
A major concession on making flexible work a workplace right apparently extracted from the Australian Public Service Commission has been thrown into question amid ongoing Australian Taxation Office industrial negotiations.
To briefly recap for summer holiday returnees, the APS-wide bargaining process was broadly done and dusted following an 11.2% offer (plus a sign-on bonus) accepted by the Community and Public Sector Union was initially rejected by members of the Taxation Officers’ Branch of the Australian Services Union.
But the deal is yet to get over the line at the Australian Taxation Office where the Taxation Officers’ Branch of the Australian Services Union still retains a strong presence and is pushing for the pay deal to be arbitrated by a full bench of the Fair Work Commission and may well succeed.
The ASU successfully resisted a push to dilute conditions under the previous Coalition government but forfeited meagre pay raises in the process. It’s now looking to claw back those rises, especially after agencies that forfeited conditions for pay had conditions restored.
Unsurprisingly, a union made of tax checkers is neck deep in the details of the new pay offer on the table. The ASU has been going through the fine print of the work-from-home / flexible work offer before employees and, well, there are quite a few ambiguities and questions.
“The ATO is allowing the idea to go unchallenged that its proposed ATO Enterprise Agreement will allow you to work at home as much as you wish. The ASU has asked the ATO on three separate occasions to make it clear to all ATO staff how working from home would operate under its proposal.
“The ATO has refused to explain each time. Last Thursday, ATO People DC Alison Stott said the ATO would comply with the work-from-home clause if the proposed ATO Enterprise Agreement is voted up by staff, but would not explain what this would mean in practice,” ASU Tax Officers’ Branch Secretary said in communications to members.
“Our focus in this report is on obtaining approval to work at home. The proposed clause is based on the new flexible working arrangements in the Fair Work Act 2009, which came into effect on 6 June 2023 at the initiative of the Labor government. These new workplace rights were restricted to specified groups of employees, such as those caring for a child of school age or younger, those with a disability, those with caring responsibilities or those aged 55 or older.” Lapidos wrote in a member update.
“The ASU has assisted several members under these new provisions and obtained new working-at-home arrangements which were satisfactory for them. But these provisions do not allow these groups of employees to work at home as much as they might prefer. The ATO can and does rely on “reasonable business grounds” to limit access to working at home. This situation will continue under the proposed ATO Enterprise Agreement 2024. The true benefit of the new flexible working-at-home clause is that it extends these new workplace rights to all ATO employees,” the ASU communication said.
The question of APS employer “reasonable business grounds” is pertinent because it throws open the question of how new workplace flexibility rights will be assessed and applied across agencies.
Specifically, the ASU is questioning the ostensive “bias to approval and no caps” on working from home, noting that “Draft clause 51.1 e) says the ATO will consider your request to work at home with a bias to approving your request.”
“Draft clause 51.19 obliges the ATO to remove its current 2 day cap on working at home for full time staff. Neither provision requires the ATO to approve your specific request to work at home.”
The ASU, which is recommending an ATO staff ‘no’ vote on the new deal in favour of arbitration at the Fair Work Commission says that “Reasonable business grounds is the real problem”.
The union points out the ATO has told employees that: “We want to maintain effective levels of collaboration, networking and knowledge sharing across teams, business lines, and within sites. Employees are encouraged to contribute beyond their own team and to the cohesion of the ATO site through an active presence. This is an important part of our ATO culture, and we recognise how valuable such in-person interactions are, including informal interaction with colleagues in your site”.
If that sounds like the union is pushing the employer on specifics, it’s because it is. The ATO expects rigour from its employees and now that same principle is being applied to the employer.
The ATO is one of, if not the most, detail-focused agencies in the APS. It should be no surprise its staff can number-crunch and pick apart a pay offer.
Sounds like spreadsheets at dawn.
READ MORE:
ATO pay dispute referred to Fair Work Commission as Jordan’s days count down
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