Working undercover isn’t working from home: AFP union slams pay deal as a cop out

Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers are one step closer to taking history-making industrial action after its top brass stuck fast to official bargaining policy rules.

The generic 11.2%-plus-starting bonus offer is still on the AFP table despite the comparative inaccessibility of its generous new work-from-home conditions that have been made to other public servants.

In a sharp escalation of the growing rift between public servants who will be able to work from home and those who won’t, the Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) has rounded on the offer as deeply inadequate for its members who are duty-bound to put themselves in harm’s way.

“When was the last time a public servant from the Australian Bureau of Statistics received a needle-stick injury from a known drug user while on duty, and when was the last time a public servant from IP Australia required a positive-vetting security clearance to fulfil their duties?” AFPA president Alex Caruana asked members last Friday.

“When was the last time a public servant from Geoscience Australia got assaulted while on duty or was shot at?”

The industrial flare-up featuring Australia’s finest is the latest in a series of highly public rejections of the one-size-fits-all pay deal that the Australian Public Service Commission APSC), and by extension, Minister for the Public Service Katy Gallagher, are copping.

One of the bigger tactical and potentially strategic issues now being driven home is the big win of work-from-home (WFH) granted to public servants in place of a significant pay bump. WFH rights would flow through to but are irrelevant to government employees whose work is always in the field.

AFPA members have been voting on whether or not to take protected industrial action that would be authorised by the Fair Work Commission in response to the APSC’s position.

Other unions, including the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), Construction Forestry and Maritime Union (CFMEU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), have all thrown the APSC’s enforced offer back at the Department of Parliamentary Services and have run strikes over the deal that hit Parliament House.

Employer groups are also belting the idea like a gong, with the Australian Industry Group pillorying the APS pay deal as so out of touch that it was “nauseating”.

The Community and Public Sector (CPSU) has defended the pay deal, with national secretary Melissa Donnelly refuting Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox’s comments last week.

“This attitude will come at a cost to businesses who aren’t benefitting or being supported to benefit from their employees having flexible working conditions,” Donnelly said.

But now AFPA is weighing in, calling out the latest pay deal as a dud that heavily penalises on-premises or in-the-field shift workers over generalist clerical staff, who increasingly can work from where they want (within Australia).

“This figure doesn’t reward or recognise you for the important work you undertake. It treats you the same as a traditional ‘8am to 4pm’ public servant and doesn’t acknowledge the risks you take as an employee of the AFP,” Caruana told AFPA members.

“While the offer is disappointing, it’s not entirely surprising. It’s clear that the federal government and APSC don’t value you or the AFP, as they’ve effectively tied the hands of the AFP bargaining team with the Public Sector Workplace Relations and Non-APS Policy,”

Caruana said that since AFPA commenced negotiations in late 2023, it had bargained in good faith and continued to do so.

“We believe that the same can’t be said for the policies implemented by the government and enforced by the APSC,” Caruana said.

“Their draconic and broad policies have hindered good faith negotiations. We aren’t asking for the world or anything unreasonable; we want to see some improvements to allowances, broadband provisions and a little more than the current base pay wage rises on offer.”

Bargaining continues.

This article was first published by The Mandarin.