The Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) has commenced protected industrial action over the government’s current pay offer, saying it short-changes its members on remuneration and conditions, leaving other police forces and the private sector to poach Australia’s finest.
The union will initially target selected airports, with high-visibility messaging on AFP vehicles. The vehicles will sport a range of fetching new handwritten slogans prominently applied to their windows, including “No cop out on a fair deal”, “Crime fighting doesn’t pay”, “Undervalued and Overworked” and “Lowest paid police, largest jurisdiction”.
The industrial tactic is an instant eye-catcher because it cleverly clashes with the customised dynamic chequerboard wraparound graphics and bold capitalised AFP markings on its vehicles.
Police are angry about the pay offer made to them because it is based on the Australian Public Service Commission’s 11.2% service-wide offer that was accepted by the Community and Public Sector Union after a right to flexible work was included in workplace conditions rather than a bigger pay bump.
The work-from-home right is largely useless to employees like those in the AFP or airport firefighters, who work when, where and as required, hence the spreading of industrial action.
“AFP appointees keep children safe from child exploitation. They are on the frontline when it comes to human trafficking, terrorism, cybercrime, people smuggling and international drug imports into Australia,” AFPA president Alex Caruana said.
“The federal government continues to treat them like traditional public servants when they are anything but.”
Caruana said every police service across Australia was competing for the best officers and that the AFP and federal government could not ignore “the fact that AFP members were the lowest-paid officers in the country.”
“During the last spillover at senate estimates, it was disappointing to see the AFP Executive seemingly celebrating the fact that AFP police officers, with allowances, were the fifth-best paid police officers in the country,” Caruana said.
“In this case, fifth best equals third last. Base salary data is clear that AFP sworn police officers are the lowest base-paid officers in the country. The AFP was previously regarded as the premier law enforcement agency in the country, a regard which was reflected by comparatively high pay and allowances.”
Caruana has a point. It is difficult for federal agencies to trade on their cachet to attract if their pay is at the bottom of the ladder. Like Defence, the AFP has an issue with its people being trained, often gaining high-level security clearances and then jumping ship for better money.
Defence is trying to staunch staff loss with bans on working for consultancies or contracting firms for two years after leaving, but the AFP has to compete against seven other jurisdictions as well as intelligence agencies that are known to be able to pay a premium of potentially 40% over the base rate to secure specialist talent.
The AFPA said it held significant concerns that the AFP will be “effectively unable to recruit new members or attract experienced officers from other forces if the federal government’s current pay offer isn’t improved” — a longhand way of saying people won’t move for a pay cut.
Caruana also took aim at the fact that the Remuneration Tribunal had made the AFP commissioner one of the best-paid police chief roles in the country whilst its officers were among the lowest paid.
“That really is disrespectful to the hardworking AFP workforce striving to keep communities across Australia safe,” Caruana said.
Meanwhile, AFP officers will be able to tell the general public of their industrial woes under the terms of the protected action.
“If you see an AFP appointee undertaking PIA, go up and have a friendly chat with them. They’ll welcome the opportunity to speak about their work conditions. You’ll soon realise that they are no different to other Australians struggling with cost-of-living pressures and not feeling respected by the federal government,” Caruana said.
An AFP spokesperson told The Mandarin that “the AFP recognises the right of employees to take responsible and legally appropriate protected industrial action” and that the employer “continues to work in good faith with the AFPA and employee bargaining representatives to finalise the enterprise bargaining offer in line with the parameters set out by government.”
Those parameters mean not deviating from the 11.2% struck by the APSC and the CPSU.
“The AFP has put in place contingency plans to ensure there are no disruptions to operational capability and no impacts to community safety,” the spokesperson said.
“The AFP has yet to announce a formal offer; however, it is on track to present the new enterprise agreement to the workforce for consideration before the May 25 expiry of the current employment determination.”
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