'Financially literate' Australian Treasury staff accept modest pay offer
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Version 0 of 1. Treasury staff have voted to accept the federal government’s offer to increase pay by 1.5% a year, making the department one of the few public service agencies where the Coalition has had success in a long-running industrial dispute. The employment minister, Eric Abetz, welcomed the “significant result” and, in praising the staff members, referred to the Treasury as “a financially literate” agency. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) had previously called on Treasury staff to reject the offer “because the Treasury offer is well below inflation, trades conditions for little gain, and strips rights into unenforceable policy”. The proposed enterprise agreement won support from about 58% of the 557 staff members who voted in the ballot, a government spokesperson said, while 42% voted against it. The 557 participants in the ballot comprised two-thirds of the 823 staff members who were eligible to vote. Abetz, who is the minister assisting the prime minister for the public service, said the ballot result was decisive. “It is worth noting that Treasury is a financially literate and central budget agency,” he said in a statement. “Treasury employees clearly understand the importance and the need for fiscal restraint as the government is faced with paying down the legacy of Labor’s debt, waste and mismanagement.” Abetz said the Treasury deal was one of several agreements that had been reached “in the face of significant union opposition”. Related: Coalition about to weather storm of public service anger over wages “Six enterprise agreements have now been voted up under the government’s bargaining policy: three at NBN Co, and one each at Comsuper, the Australian Office of Financial Management, and now Treasury. “The NBN, Australian Office of Financial Management and Treasury agreements will give staff a total pay increase of 4.5% over three years in exchange for genuine productivity gains and more efficient work practices.” The CPSU, which has been at the forefront of a dispute over with the federal government over the bargaining framework for public sector wage deals, said there had been rolling stoppages in 16 government agencies. These included Centrelink, Medicare and child support in the Department of Human Services, Agriculture, Defence, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and the Australian Tax Office. The CPSU national secretary, Nadine Flood, said the bulk of the public service was holding out for fair deals. “Senator Abetz may think his current offers – including stripping rights and conditions worth significantly more than 1.5%, and even cuts to current take-home pay for thousands of workers – are responsible and realistic but I would suggest Immigration, Border Force, Centrelink and Medicare workers who have walked off the job in droves are sending rather a strong signal they don’t agree,” she said. “The minister is fooling himself if he thinks Treasury is representative of the feeling across the public service. “Even in Treasury, we’ve seen a fourfold increase in opposition to a substandard agreement – the ‘no’ vote has increased from 10% in 2011 to 42% in 2015 – that is hardly a ringing endorsement of the Abbott government’s bargaining policy.” The budget delivered by the treasurer, Joe Hockey, in May predicted the consumer price index would be about 2.5% a year in each of the next four years. However, Abetz sought to justify the 1.5% annual pay offer by saying inflation for the year to March 2015 was 1.3%. Abetz said the CPSU should “stop standing between public servants and the realistic and affordable wage rises on offer”. A government spokesperson said Treasury would start the process to lodge the enterprise agreement with the Fair Work Commission. The pay rise would take effect seven days after the commission approved the agreement. |