Despite progress made in Fair Work Australia, CPSU has warned today that industrial action in some public sector agencies cannot be ruled out from July 1.

According to CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood, negotiations with the Australian Public Service Commission had made some progress, but that outstanding issues meant that some agencies were heading towards industrial action.

The CPSU took the disputes to Fair Work Australia on 30 May, following concerns by employees about cuts to conditions in many agencies and limits on genuine negotiations driven by the Australian Public Service Commission.

“This is not a normal part of the bargaining process – the CPSU went through the last round of bargaining without taking a single agency to the industrial commission,” Ms Flood said.

Disputes were notified in Fair Work Australia for 12 agencies: the Department of Human Services (including Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support), Prime Minister and Cabinet, Defence, Infrastructure and Transport, Health and Ageing, Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), Finance, Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry (DAFF), Immigration, the Australian Tax Office, Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR).

At the end of the first day of the FWA hearing, 30 May, Commissioner Deegan requested the APSC attend a conference with the CPSU. The APSC agreed and a private conference between the parties occurred on 31 May.

Ms Flood said the involvement of Fair Work was a positive step towards resolving issues sensibly.

"There has been some progress on the issues in dispute, and we are seeing some agencies back away from cuts to existing entitlements.

“But there are still many issues which the APSC has refused to resolve.

“We have removed barriers to agreement in some agencies but there are still serious concerns, and we could still see protected action ballot applications lodged next week.

“Industrial action is a last resort for public servants, who just want fair pay and conditions achieved through real negotiations. But if our concerns are ignored it is one of the options open to us.

One early win for public servants has been movement on superannuation. The CPSU has been pushing for the current level of 15.4 per cent superannuation to be locked into workplace agreements (so not subject to legislative change) and for superannuation to continue to be paid to those on unpaid parental leave.

“It's a critical issue for our members and simply didn't need to be in dispute,” Ms Flood said.

“The APSC's approach had created unnecessary concern among employees. But new written advice has gone out to agencies about this issue which has already started to flow through to agency bargaining tables.

FWA is currently holding further conciliation conferences with individual agencies involved in the dispute.

The issues in dispute include superannuation, personal leave, annual leave, maternity leave, working hours, pay increases, pay equity, back pay, redeployment, redundancy, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment, recognition of union delegates and dispute resolution.