Members of the Australian Federal Police have been given their first official look at their employer’s latest pay offer.
It is contained within the proposed new enterprise agreement, with the force putting the deal up for scrutiny just as New South Wales launched a brazen raid to poach officers and staff.
Striking under the cover of the federal budget, NSW Premier Chris Minns and NSW Police commissioner Karen Webb on Wednesday put out a casting call for as many as 1,500 police from other jurisdictions to come and join the NSW force just as their federal colleagues are trying to finalise their wage deal.
The bait for police to switch sides to NSW includes officers being able to retain their rank and the truncating of a course for recruits at the Goulburn Police Academy from 8 months to three months, and a lowering of the minimum age from 19 years old to 18 years old.
The poaching raid, and its timing, is a major problem for the AFP, which has traditionally traded on its kudos of being a national force with opportunities to gain skills and experience in specialised roles like transnational crime, organised crime, cybercrime, computer forensics, financial crime and even art and antiquities forgery and theft.
However, the national force has now fallen behind both NSW and Queensland in terms of pay, with both states ruthlessly gaming their pay advantage to headhunt AFP officers already living in their states.
Another problem is that the AFP has been bound by the Australian Public Service Commission’s wage rise ceiling of 11.2% over three years that was struck after the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) agreed to the figure after starting at a claim for 20%
The Australian Federal Police Association, the union that represents AFP officers, has recommended that AFP staff vote against the pay proposal and say it is inadequate.
The federal police union currently has authorisation in place for protected industrial action but has been judicious and highly tactical in how it has been applied; however, this could escalate and spread to airports in the event negotiations break down.
The AFPA has launched an online Parliamentary petition this week to draw further attention to their campaign for a better pay deal.
“Currently, AFP police officers are the lowest base-paid police officers in the country. If you factor in allowances, they are the third worst-paid police officers in the country. This isn’t good enough for Australia’s premier law enforcement agency, which protects the country and its many communities,” the petition preamble says.
“We therefore ask the House to recognise the excellent work of Australian Federal Police officers and commit to the principles of ‘same job, same pay’ by providing additional funding to the AFP to increase allowances and wages to ensure that AFP officers aren’t the lowest base paid police officers in the country.”
In the meantime, the AFP bargaining team has been trying to sell the deal to the workplace.
“We encourage you to read and make an informed an informed decision about whether this agreement is suitable for you (and the AFP) over the course of the next three years. The Enterprise Bargaining Team and your employee representatives have worked together in good faith to negotiate an agreement we [the Bargaining Team] believe provides AFP employees with significantly enhanced conditions, a pay offer almost double that of the last agreement and tailored to your needs based on what you told us in the pre-Bargaining survey,” the AFP told its staff in an email.
The all-staff AFP email told employees that “if the vote is unsuccessful, the AFP will commence a survey process to determine what it was about the offer that did not satisfy the majority of employees and the bargaining will be required to start again.”
Setting out the parameters of an autopsy before the operation goes into action. Thorough? Unquestionably.
Optimistic? … meh.
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