Public servants in some departments are taking part in regular industrial action over pay and conditions negotiations, but a tipster tells us the worker bees in the Defence Department are hamstrung in what they can do:

“Department of Defense APS staff have voted 58.4% in favour of rejecting the proposed Enterprise Agreement, with 84% of staff having voted. This is the third rejection and bucks the trend of previous votes towards yes, the last two ‘no’ votes having gotten 60% and 55% of the majority. Unlike Customs and Immigration, Defense APS can’t rally any industrial action that would impact the general public and hence raise awareness, APS can refuse to fill in travel allowances but managers just assign to someone else to do. Nobody would consider action that could endanger operator lives for a pay rise which encourages Defence APS to remain silent.”