Industrial Action planned in Services Australia

Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) members in Services Australia are set to take strategic protected industrial action from Tuesday, sending a clear message to the Albanese Labor Government over current pay and pay equity offers.

CPSU members across the Australian Public Service (APS) are calling on the Albanese Labor Government to do better on pay in the current round of service-wide agreement bargaining.

While the union has achieved good wins for APS employees on working from home and protecting existing conditions, members have been clear that it’s time for the Government to step up on wages.

Thousands of CPSU members have just taken part in hundreds of meetings across APS workplaces, unanimously voting to calls on the Albanese Labor Government to urgently improve the current pay offer, including:

• Offering fair pay increases,
• Making real progress on APS pay equity, and
• Ensuring pay increases are delivered on time with backpay where required.

The planned industrial action in Services Australia will be an ‘Auxiliary Code Ban’. While it won’t impact customers seeking assistance from Services Australia, it will wreak havoc on the agency’s systems of staff monitoring.

For two weeks, staff in Services Australia will not enter prescribed codes that allow management to track the tasks individual employees are performing at any given time.

The CPSU has assured the public that frontline services will not be impacted by the industrial action, and that it is only internal management systems that will be affected.

Quotes attributable to Melissa Donnelly, CPSU National Secretary:

“The Albanese Labor Government was elected on a platform of getting wages moving but pay proposals to date are falling short of this commitment.?

“We’ve been consulting our members across the APS extensively and there is consensus that the APSC and the Federal Government can and should do better on pay.

“Our members are adamant that they will not settle for the current unambitious pay proposals. As a result, CPSU members in Services Australia will be exercising their right to take protected industrial action this week, with support from their colleagues across the APS.

“This first action should make it clear to Government that our union and our members are serious about securing a fair outcome on pay and they will do what is necessary to achieve that.

“Banning the use of Auxiliary Codes for two weeks will significantly disrupt internal monitoring and data collection, and fly in the face of the toxic micro-management culture that exists in Services Australia.

“The Australian public can be assured that the help they receive from Services Australia will not be impacted by the industrial action.

“This Government made a commitment to its own workforce and if they are serious about getting wages moving and about rebuilding the APS, then it’s time for them to step up and fulfill that commitment.

Monday 31st July 2023??

Media contact: Tori McGregor 0429 000 620

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Background

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The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) successfully ran a Protected Action Ballot with its members in Services Australia.

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• 93% voted in favour of bans or limitations using Auxiliary codes, except for the Work Health and Safety code, in the computer/telephone operations system.
• 93% voted in favour of unlimited stoppages of work for periods of up to and including 1 hour.
• 88% voted in favour of unlimited stoppages of work for periods of between 1 hour and up to and including 24 hours.

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CPSU National Secretary, Melissa Donnelly, has written to the Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher regarding the CPSU’s significant worker consultation where a motion was unanimously passed calling on the Federal Government to do better on pay.

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The motion called on the government to urgently improve the current pay offer, including: offering fair pay increases, real progress on APS pay equity and ensuring pay increases are delivered on time with backpay where required.

The letter to Minister Gallagher also calls on the Government to reconsider its rejection of the unions claim regarding disability leave, gender affirmation leave, and a 4-day working week.?