Public servants to get bonuses up to $1400 in wage deal

“Labor offers billions in tax cuts to the rich, but is offering APS workers a real wage cut, even as we struggle to attract and retain staff,” Members United presidential candidate Adriana Boisen said in her election pitch.

The union election is due on December 6 and if the challenger group were successful could upset the scheduled formal March wage vote.

The government has offered increases of 4 per cent in the first year, 3.8 per cent in 2025 and 3.4 per cent in 2026.

About 8000 of the 180,000 public servants will also receive an extra payment as part of moves to standardise pay across agencies.

Workers will also get unrestricted rights to work from home, a key win for the female-dominated lower ranks of the Australian public service.

CPSU federal secretary Melissa Donnelly said the offer was the equivalent of 0.92 per cent of an employee’s salary, or $724 for an APS4, $933 for an APS6 and $1119 for an EL1.

She said the union recommends the package, saying it “will deliver strong conditions and improved pay without delays”.

Members will vote in a union poll that would run until Thursday, November 30.

“In our last membership poll, 52 per cent of members supported the package put forward by the government with feedback revealing that while members were happy with the conditions that had been negotiated, they thought the government could do better on pay,” Ms Donnelly said.

“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.”

APS chief negotiator Peter Riordan said, “by bringing forward the year one pay increase by 12 weeks, employees now have the opportunity to get an additional payment in their pockets”.

“This offer represents the Commonwealth’s third and final improvement to pay,” he said.

“This will conclude the APS-wide bargaining process, and APS employees can now directly have their say on this work when it’s time to vote on their agency’s enterprise agreement.”

The CPSU had made a claim for pay rises of 20 per cent over three years, including 9 per cent in the first year.

In September, it knocked back a pay offer of 11.2 per cent over three years after a poll of about 15,000 members found 48 per cent rejected it.

The union said at the time that 52 per cent vote in support was not enough to accept the offer. Some agencies, including Services Australia, proceeded to take industrial action to support a better offer.