The Australian Public Service Commission’s (APSC) hand-picked industrial hard man, Peter Riordan, has cashed in his chips after extracting a significant victory over the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU). He’s traded up to one of the southern hemisphere’s biggest payrolls, the New South Wales Department of Education.
In an update posted to social media over the weekend, Riordan said that “the Fair Work Commission has now approved all enterprise agreements covering 103 individual Australian Public Service agencies, providing increases in real pay and contemporary employment conditions for 170,000 employees.”
The update came as a raft of non-APSC federal employers and agencies continue to hold out against the 11.2% pay rise over a three-year baseline set by the commission, including the Australian Federal Police Association, the United Firefighters Union Aviation Branch and several other employee representatives advocating for better deals than those given to so-called desk-workers.
A major point of difference remains the discount against a broader APS pay rise that Riordan extracted in return for new flexible and work-from-home rights, which will allow the broader administrative cadre of the APS to efficiently expand out of Canberra over federal workers who can’t work from home.
Anthony Albanese, his ACT senator, and the minister for Finance and the Public Service spent the weekend showcasing the federal government’s commitment to the ACT ahead of Tuesday’s budget.
Riordan, who now lists himself as executive director for workforce reform at the NSW Department of Education, took a final victory lap and declared the APS-wide wage deal as “the outcome of many months of bargaining during 2023, based on the Government’s policy to enhance the APS as a model employee and reduce the disparity between agencies.”
“Over the decades, different pay scales and working conditions had developed across agencies. Through the APS-wide bargaining process, we were able to negotiate over 50 common conditions with significant enhancements to flexible working arrangements, paid parental leave and personal leave. We also delivered additional pay increases for staff working in agencies where pay scales had been suppressed previously,” Riordan said.
“Staff in every agency delivered a resounding ‘yes’ vote with almost every agreement supported by well over 90% of voting staff. It was a team effort and I thank the staff at the Australian Public Service Commission who worked tirelessly to support the central bargaining.”
The key word is almost, but there is no debate Riordan deftly worked the numbers to his and the government’s advantage.
The broader APS wage deal was settled at 11.2% plus a start-on bonus. The CPSU’s starting point was 20%. The non-APS agency and employer deal is looking is shaping towards 17%, and looking a lot firmer for Riordan’s departure. To be fair, non-APS agencies were never in his remit — he just painted the waterline.
What can be said is that Riordan proved a deft hand at the main game and played a highly effective counter-strategy to that of his main opponent. Perhaps too deft to remain in Canberra.
Like many competent federal operators, he’s just been poached by the NSW Minns government, which will soon try to thrash out new wage deals with unions that have previously made its own cabinet ministers weep in public.
Should be fun.
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