The Taxation Officers’ Branch of the Australian Services Union (ASU) has escalated the lightning-rod issue of time off in lieu (TOIL) for executive-level (EL) public servants working at the revenue agency as a matter of concern, as it guides the soon-to-be-refreshed senior management suite towards arbitration before a full bench of the Fair Work Commission.
In the second APS bargaining forensic discovery of the week, the ASU’s long-game strategy against accepting the Australian Public Service Commission’s (APSC) offer of an 11.2% pay rise plus sign-on bonus has grown more teeth courtesy of existing conditions vs new common conditions.
Taxation officers are, broadly, not known for accepting general claims over hard evidence, so it stands their union likes to sweat the detail and cordially deliver a carefully calculated demand to their employer in the same spirit other taxpayers are reminded of their obligations.
The latest battleground is time off in lieu for ELs, which was cited as a major uplift in conditions in many other agencies.
But a burning issue at the ATO is that many of the workplace conditions now being restored across the APS were never forfeited at Tax, whose employees held out for preservation of their conditions over nominal Coalition-era pay rises, keeping their rights intact.
Put more simply, ATO staff just voted down the dilution of conditions and rights and went without during the cold years… unfortunately for the ATO, that means that many of the APSC’s concessions to uplift APS conditions don’t necessarily scrub up.
There’s a bit of to-and-fro, but the ASU on Wednesday told ATO members it didn’t much like what was happening with time off in lieu for ELs.
“The ATO has failed to draw your attention to the loss of important workplace right for EL1 staff to hour for hour Time Off In Lieu (TOIL),” the ASU said in communications to members.
The bit that is being called out is the clocking of additional hours for EL1s is hour-by-hour vs part- or full-day payback for EL2s.
It does matter, especially when committees are sitting and a 07.30 start extends to a 19:30 finish. Let’s face it, the APS has been banking that ambition dividend for a couple of decades. It’s why APS EL jobs are dubbed “the burn zone”.
“The ASU pointed out the ATO’s EL1s workplace right to hour for hour TOIL at the APS-wide bargaining table. The … APSC’s Statement of Common Conditions provides at p. 76, point 3, that: Agencies will retain (in an agreement or codified in policy) additional more codified or beneficial conditions related to EL TOIL,” ASU Taxation Officers’ Branch Secretary Jeff Lapidos said in communications to members.
It’s not a great look for a government trying to sell an improvement of conditions. The ASU wants to push its wage deal all the way to Fair Work, and the union’s ATO members (and there are a few) are pushing for a ‘No’ vote on the current proposed EBA accepted by other agencies to get there.
Realistically, the union and staff don’t have much to lose by forcing the issue, which they are.
“The ATO has defied the Public Service Commission’s direction that Agencies will retain more beneficial conditions related to EL TOIL,” the ASU told members.
“Think about the ATO’s attitude to its EL staff when you are asked to vote for a new ATO Enterprise Agreement in February,” the ASU said.
“The ASU recommends you vote NO! Vote No to support EL staff. Vote NO to get a better deal on pay!”, the ASU told ATO staff.
Welcome to 2024.
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Bait and switch? Plenty of devilish detail in APS flexible work right fine print
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