After significant delay, CSIRO Executive have finally tabled an initial pay offer during Enterprise Agreement negotiations.
Executive representatives have put forward a pay proposal of 11.2 per cent over three years (4% in the first year, followed by 3.8% and 3.4%) for consideration at the bargaining table.
Staff Association members were asked to participate in a confidential online poll to measure support for Executive’s first pay proposal and provide direction for union bargaining representatives in future negotiations.
The poll was open for two weeks and closed Friday 20 October 2023.
Members were asked if they support CSIRO Executive’s first pay proposal of 11.2 per cent over three years (4% in the first year, followed by 3.8% and 3.4%) or whether the union should campaign for an improved offer?
1,531 staff took part in the confidential poll, representing a clear majority of Staff Association members and close to a third of all CSIRO employees.
81 per cent of respondents rejected CSIRO’s offer of 11.2 per cent over three years.
This represents an emphatic verdict on the first pay proposal and sends a strong message to CSIRO Executive that the offer needs to be improved.
Support our campaign to win improved pay and conditions at CSIRO. Union members are provided with more choices and opportunities for their views and opinions to be represented in negotiations.
If you’re not a member join the Staff Association today.
The CSIRO Staff Association has the following principles for bargaining on pay:
• Salary increases must be genuinely negotiated with employees and their union.
• Pay outcomes must ensure employees can keep up with increases in the cost of living and should address the significant decline in real terms of CSIRO pay in the last ten years.
• Pay outcomes must ensure the CSIRO can once again attract and retain the skills it needs to deliver for the Australian community.
• A worker’s take-home pay should never go backwards.
For more information on our claim, visit www.csirostaff.org.au/bargaining/priorities
Many CSIRO employees are struggling with the cost of living, with some employees forced to make difficult choices to keep up. Very high inflation – 7.8% in the December quarter 2022, the expected peak – reflects higher housing costs, petrol and electricity, childcare, food, clothing and other essentials (see first chart).
CSIRO employees have been experiencing real pay decline since 2013, due to the previous government’s concerted strategy to hold down salaries in the Commonwealth sector. This has resulted in public sector pay outcomes falling behind the private sector (see second chart).
This is affecting CSIRO science delivery capability, with the organisation struggling to attract and retain employees in a tight labour market, high turnover in some areas, and critical roles left vacant. Wages need to increase, so that the capacity of the CSIRO to serve the Australian community is not further affected.
Pay outcomes need to address ten years of declining wages in the agency, and allow employees to keep up with current and future cost of living increases.
In the context of steep increases in the cost of living, the CSIRO Staff Association seeks front-loaded pay increases.
The CSIRO Staff Association’s claim is consistent with the government’s commitment to real pay increases underpinned by productivity growth and delivered through fair and genuine negotiations between employees, their representatives, and employers.
The CSIRO Staff Association claim is for employees to receive the following pay rises over the life of the enterprise agreement:
• 9% in year one
• 6% in year two
• 5% in year three
In addition, there will be a cost-of-living adjustment payment in any year of the agreement where Consumer Price Index (CPI) exceeds the wage increase payable for that year, so that wage outcomes are adjusted to the rate of CPI. Pay outcomes should be achieved promptly, with employees receiving their pay rise no later than 12 months after their last pay increase. If necessary, backpay shall be provided to ensure no employee is disadvantaged.
CSIRO employees are now significantly underpaid relative to peers in other research industry organisations (see chart).
The first pay proposal from Executive would continue the shortfall.
This data is drawn from some excellent CSIRO salary analysis developed by Staff Association member Andrew Hellicar.
For more detail on Andrew’s findings, click here.
With the delayed pay proposal arriving six weeks before the nominal expiry of the current enterprise agreement – 16 November 2023 – Executive bargaining representatives admitted that it is ‘unlikely to have a new CSIRO agreement in place by then.’
However, Executive have also stated that the ‘APSC is proposing arrangements to mitigate the potential impact of any delays to pay increases as a result.’
The Staff Association’s position remains that CSIRO staff should not be financially disadvantaged should negotiations continue beyond the nominal expiry date of the current agreement, especially given the numerous delays in the bargaining process due to Executive’s approach.
Executive’s proposal mirrors the offer made recently by the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) in service-wide bargaining negotiations with CPSU.
That offer – 11.2 per cent pay increase over three years plus a suite of core conditions – met with a lukewarm response and failed to secure clear support from union members.
CPSU is now in the process of escalating campaign activities to win an improved offer. Thousands of union members in Services Australia recently took part in a 24-hour strike and CPSU is applying to run protected action ballots at three more APS workplaces, including the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) and the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).
Staff Association members were asked to participate in a confidential online poll to measure support for Executive’s first pay proposal and provide direction for union bargaining representatives in future negotiations. The poll was open for two weeks and closed Friday 20 October 2023.
Members were asked if they support CSIRO Executive’s first pay proposal of 11.2 per cent over three years (4% in the first year, followed by 3.8% and 3.4%) or whether the union should campaign for an improved offer?
1,531 staff took part in the confidential poll, representing a clear majority of Staff Association members and close to a third of all CSIRO employees.
First offer rejected
81 per cent of respondents rejected CSIRO’s offer of 11.2 per cent over three years.
This represents an emphatic verdict on the first pay proposal and sends a strong message to CSIRO Executive that the offer needs to be improved.
CSIRO staff are set to benefit from a major bargaining breakthrough on backpay, with the announcement of arrangements that would allow the payment of a transitional salary increase as part of any new enterprise agreement finalised before mid-March 2024.
The practical effect of the new arrangements means that CSIRO negotiations will continue with a pay safety net – albeit with conditions attached – beyond the 16 November nominal expiry date of the current agreement.
In an email to staff, Executive bargaining representatives outlined the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) proposal.
‘Subject to certain conditions CSIRO may pay a wage increase “backdated” to the anniversary date of the last scheduled wage increase provided that we commence a ballot for a new agreement before 14 March 2024, which results in a majority of employees voting to approve the agreement.’
This development represents a major breakthrough, with the APSC being forced – due to sustained pressure from CPSU campaigning – to change their own policy and allow back pay to for non-APS agencies.
