The process for negotiating a new workplace deal for hundreds of public servants at Canberra's Parliament House has collapsed and must begin again, staff have been told.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
More than 800 workers at the Department of Parliamentary Services, who have been waiting since 2014 for a new enterprise agreement, were told on Monday that their bosses were going back to the drawing board on the bargaining process.
The news comes as the building's maintenance workers threaten to walk off the job over what they say is a threat to their working conditions and entitlements.
The process at Parliamentary Services is the latest government department to fall victim to the fall-out from the Uniline decision fo the Federal Court which found a failure to comply with a key technical requirement will render the whole bargaining process null and void.
Across the Australian Public Service, workplace ballots are being cancelled or postponed and talks put on hold as departments and agencies realise they failed in their legal requirements at the start of the process and must now begin again.
The oversight, described by one union as a "massive stuff-up", throws into disarray efforts by departmental bosses to force the pace of the bargaining process after a period of post-election inaction.
Do you know more? Send your tips to ps@canberratimes.com.au
The decision affects the entire Australian industrial relations landscape and came despite the intervention of employer lobbyists the Australian Industry Group, and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The federal government's workplace authority, the Public Service Commission has tried to downplay the impact of the Uniline decision on the long-running bargaining saga in government workplaces, with Commissioner John Lloyd saying "minor errors" by departments would not derail the bargaining process.
But a letter sent on Monday by departmental official Myra Croke laid bare the effect of the court's decision on the DPS negotiations.
"The department is discontinuing the current bargaining process and that bargaining will cease immediately," Ms Croke wrote.
The department's lead negotiator explained that any agreement struck under the process that was underway would not have been capable of being ratified by the Fair Work Commission.
"The department anticipates being in a position very shortly to provide a draft enterprise agreement, which is the Department's proposal in relation to a new enterprise agreement, to all bargaining representatives," Ms Croke's letter said.
"The Department expects bargaining representatives to respond very promptly to the proposal."
News of the bargaining collapse comes as unions representing some of the 80-strong Parliament House maintenance workforce are going through the Fair Work process for protected industrial action, saying the deal they have been offered by Parliamentary Services cuts their take-home pay by more than 17 per cent, a claim rejected by the department.
The Australian Manufacturing workers' Union says maintenance crews have been battling to keep the building going with a workforce that has been slashed by 50 per cent in the past 20 years.
The Constructions, Forestry and Mining Union and the Electrical Trades Union, who also represent Parliament House maintenance workers, are also seeking consent for stop-work actions by their members.
