Department of Human Services staff have once again voted to reject the federal government’s attempt to get a new enterprise agreement over the line, despite being offered a slightly larger pay increase this time around.

Department of Human Services staff have once again voted to reject the federal government’s attempt to get a new enterprise agreement over the line, despite being offered a slightly larger pay increase this time around.

With the results in it this afternoon (Friday) 79.47 per cent of DHS staff knocked back the new agreement, even though the proposed pay rise had risen from 4.5 per cent to 6 per cent over three years. The vote had a participation rate of 77.51 per cent.

The last DHS vote took place in September 2015 when 83 per cent turned down the government’s offer but this was at a lower proposed pay rise.

Today’s result appears to underline something that the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has been arguing for some time; namely that the present deadlock is less about pay and more about employment rights and conditions.

The 35,000-strong Department – the largest federal department and responsible for key services such as Centrelink and Medicare – has a predominantly female workforce, a large proportion of whom work part-time or job share. Many are casual.

This demographic means that family friendly and flexible working arrangements policies have a real impact.

The CPSU has contested that the government is proposing to dilute workers’ ability to control how long they work, when they work and from which location with such factors being able to be changed almost monthly.

CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood said: “The mums and dads working in DHS have voted in their thousands to once again reject a dud deal based on the Government’s deeply flawed and unfair public sector bargaining policy.

“The agreement being pushed by DHS management still seeks to strip important rights and conditions, including essential family-friendly protections such as where and when you can be moved to work, in return for a sub-standard pay offer that does not compensate staff for a wage freeze that’s now stretched for nearly 20 months.

“Medicare, Centrelink and Child Support staff in DHS work in highly scheduled call centres and customer service environments, so their employment conditions have to reflect the realities of balancing their work and family lives. They can’t change their child-care and other family commitments at the drop of a hat, but the Government’s bargaining policy is flying in the face of the increasingly family-friendly policies being adopted in the private sector.

“DHS staff across Medicare, Centrelink and Child Support account for more than 20 per cent of the entire APS workforce. It’s well past time for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister Michaelia Cash to abandon the Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz playbook and work with us to fix this mess with a fair and reasonable outcome.”

Technical problems have dogged Human Services’ votes in both the September and February, with the union saying it had received a number of reports from members who could not log into the voting system and some staff concerned that their vote had not been counted.

Meanwhile, staff at the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) will soon give their answer to the government’s most recent pay offer, with voting beginning today.

The union, which is encouraging its members to reject the offer, said: “There has been an improvement in the offer – the government has backed off some key conditions and made the pay offer fractionally better. However the AEC offer seeks to strip workers’ rights out of the agreement, cuts important conditions and offers no compensation for the two-year delay in bargaining.”

With the results in it this afternoon (Friday) 79.47 per cent of DHS staff knocked back the new agreement, even though the proposed pay rise had risen from 4.5 per cent to 6 per cent over three years. The vote had a participation rate of 77.51 per cent.

The last DHS vote took place in September 2015 when 83 per cent turned down the government’s offer but this was at a lower proposed pay rise.

Today’s result appears to underline something that the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has been arguing for some time; namely that the present deadlock is less about pay and more about employment rights and conditions.

The 35,000-strong Department – the largest federal department and responsible for key services such as Centrelink and Medicare – has a predominantly female workforce, a large proportion of whom work part-time or job share. Many are casual.
This demographic means that family friendly and flexible working arrangements policies have a real impact.

The CPSU has contested that the government is proposing to dilute workers’ ability to control how long they work, when they work and from which location with such factors being able to be changed almost monthly.

CPSU Deputy President Lisa Newman said ahead of last year’s September vote, that the agreement on the table would hit women hardest by reducing their rights to flexible working arrangements.

The union said then that the latest DHS draft agreement removed the workers’ rights to work part-time until a child’s third birthday and does not require DHS to consider workers’ individual circumstances when deciding applications for part-time work, as well as removing job sharing.

“The key changes and cuts they want to make are going to make it incredibly difficult for part-time women, which is more than 30 per cent of their workforce, to have any real control over their hours. These are people that need to pick up their kids at the end of the day,” Ms Newman said.

Technical problems have dogged Human Services’ votes in both the September and February, with the union saying it had received a number of reports from members who could not log into the voting system.

Meanwhile, staff at the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) rejected their recent pay offer last week, with a “no” vote of 60.2 per cent.

CPSU National President Alistair Waters said: “We are in a federal election year, but that hasn’t stopped Australian Electoral Commission staff from sending this strong rebuff of the government’s dodgy approach to public sector bargaining.

“AEC staff have rejected a dud deal that would have stripped important rights and conditions – such as consultation rights, a fair performance management system and reasonable control of working hours. All that would have been traded away from a underwhelming pay offer that’s well short of what staff deserve after an 18-month pay freeze.

“The AEC is a challenging and demanding place to work, especially in an election year, and staff deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. CPSU members have clearly indicated they won’t agree to a new deal unless it protects them at work, providing certainty and consistency.”