The union representing Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers and staff has demanded the Albanese government cough up a comparable or equivalent pay rise for cops to that offered to federal firies at airports, after aviation firefighters scored a more than 17% pay rise — 6% higher than desk-driving public servants.
While the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) is still clutching to a rapidly withering fig leaf of fairness after its contested 11.2% deal with the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), frontline federal employees are preparing to fight hard for a sustainable wage deal.
The major pay issue between frontline unions and the CPSU is that there’s been a wage discount for a right to flexible work, or working from home, that staff like cops, and firefighters don’t get to access because they work at premises or locations as required. Federal tradies are in the same boat.
It is understood that the Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) has been in discussions with independent Australian Capital Territory senator David Pocock.
The meeting is significant because Pocock is an ACT senator, and local ACT policing also falls under the AFP, as well as the force’s wider federal duties.
There is now also no doubt the United Firefighters Union Aviation Branch (UFUA) offer is the new baseline the AFP is pegging its own award offer on, which is around 17%.
Asked directly what the AFPA was looking for in terms of a pay bump, AFPA president Alex Caruana told The Mandarin that the force was looking for a deal somewhere around where aviation firies had landed and that it was “hard to look away” from that proposed deal.
Caruana said it was time for the federal government to “bite the bullet” on a decent and comparable wage deal for the AFP.
A key issue the Australian Federal Police faces is the loss of trained staff to other state police forces because of higher pay after investing millions in training.
Caruana said recruits told the AFPA college told the union “everyday” that they only applied for AFP College because other states and territories told them they would be “more appetizing” with federal qualifications.
“States value the training the AFP give, they put a bit of a premium on it,” Caruana said.
“We’ve seen nine members from one station in the ACT join Queensland and Western Australia. We can see that the members are walking out the door. The AFP has the highest attrition rate from my memory. It’s pay and morale.”
Caruana said AFP training money was increasingly being spent only to benefit another jurisdiction.
On the delicate issue of AFP industrial action, Caruana pointed to Parliament House as a clear potential target. Further escalation is clearly within scope. The question is whether federal paymasters will fight agency by agency or move to put an escalating dispute to bed.
But the waterline has clearly been marked. The only question now is how the compromise is struck, and the number is out there.
An AFP spokesperson said that on “11 April 2024 the AFP Commissioner put forward the final offer for the 2024 AFP Enterprise Agreement” and that the offer aligns with all Australian Public Service common conditions, except in cases where those common conditions may not be as beneficial as what AFP employees already receive.”
“The AFP is putting forward several new allowances and conditions that will significantly enhance remuneration and flexibility for employees, in line with what the workforce, as well as employee bargaining representatives have asked for.
“The AFP is now engaging with employee bargaining representatives to finalise the draft agreement. The AFP cannot comment on other agencies’ enterprise bargaining outcomes,” the AFP spokesperson said.
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