Industrial Demands

Win pay rises that beat inflation
It is axiomatic that a union is there to defend the standard of living of its members.
However, through the Coalition period from 2013 through to 2022 and then under
Katy Gallagher’s pay deal from 2023 to now, in the context of the post-COVID cost-
of-living crisis, inflation-adjusted salaries for public servants have gone backwards
significantly – see Figure 1 in the appendix of this document for supporting evidence.
This trend cannot be allowed to continue. Our top priority in terms of our industrial
demands must be to win real pay rises that beat inflation and reverse the trend of
real salary decline. The key role of a union must be to ensure that union members
do not become poorer. The CPSU leadership has failed at this basic task for many
years.

This is particularly important for generational renewal – younger members are much
more sensitive to below-inflation offers because they tend to be at the start of their
careers, their housing costs are high and they are often saddled with HECS debts.
Inspiring young people to join the labour movement by involving them in vibrant
campaigns to win real pay rises is essential to secure the future of the CPSU and the
labour movement more generally.

Introduce a four-day week with no reduction in pay, following the
100:80:100 model
Members United has been at the forefront of advancing the four-day week
campaign, and we intend to put it as a core industrial demand in future bargaining
rounds. We would do this on the 100:80:100 model – one hundred percent of the
productivity, eighty percent of the hours, one hundred percent of the pay.
Where there are roles that require an occupant to be present for operational
reasons, we will bargain that this challenge is overcome in one of two ways: hiring
additional workers or extending penalty or overtime rates to anyone who must work
the additional hours. This will bolster public sector employment and, where there are
labour market constraints, the pay packets of workers who cannot work a four-day
week.
Ultimately, we contend that a two-day weekend is not enough. Nearly all complaints
or concerns about the four-day work week that are put to us were precisely the
concerns of the bosses when the weekend was first fought for by the labour
movement. We deserve more leisure time to enjoy our lives. It is too much to work
eight hours a day, five days a week, forty-eight weeks a year, for fifty years (give or
take) – we deserve more control over our lives, and a three-day weekend is a key
step to massively improving the quality of our lives.

Bring back the Commonwealth Super Scheme and fight for dignified,
early retirement!
Members United supports a serious campaign to restore secure, dignified retirement
for public sector workers, including by examining the case for bringing back a
defined-benefit-style Commonwealth superannuation scheme.
The old Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme closed to new members in 1990,
but it represented an interesting case study as to how public sector conditions were
economy-leading and have since been wound back. Its closure, and the shift away
from earlier retirement pathways formed part of a broader deterioration in public
sector employment conditions. Private sector workers have also been harmed by this
deterioration, as private employers no longer need to compete with the public sector
as ‘model’ employer. This forms part of the overall narrative of continual increases to
the retirement age and longer working lives.
We raise this because we believe that good, dignified early retirements are
something not just public servants deserve – this is something the whole workforce
deserves. It is not acceptable that workers are increasingly having to work until 67 or
older before they can retire, and consequently sometimes their health deteriorates
or they pass on before they can enjoy their lives after paid employment.

Actually Bring Back the Commonwealth Employment Service!
We support the CPSU leadership’s campaign to bring back the Commonwealth
Employment Service! But we’re astounded that so little progress has been made
beyond modest trials. We are already now in the second term of an Albanese
Labor Government, and bringing this back is included in the Australian Labor Party
platform. However, the Albanese Labor Government has explicitly ruled out bringing
back the CES in spite of the CPSU’s campaign and affiliation.
The fact of the matter is that if we are to make meaningful progress, we need to
move quickly, building the capacity of the state to do this at precisely the same rate
that John Howard moved to dismantle the CES in his time. That means aggressively
moving against the private, for-profit job network and building out a restored CES
as a matter of urgency. We have seen the capacity of the state scale up and out in
times of crisis – we need to take precisely that mentality and apply it to protecting
the unemployed from the current, undignified for-profit system.
We contend that the CPSU leadership’s soft and slow approach to the Bring Back the
CES campaign is indicative of their broken ideology of progressive incrementalism.
We will not operate that way. However, we agree with the CPSU leadership in that
the restoration of the Commonwealth Employment Service is the natural first priority
for the expansion of the public sector.


Bring back AusAid!
Members United supports restoring AusAID as a stand-alone, properly resourced
public agency and fighting for the expansion of Australia’s foreign aid budget from
just 0.18% of Gross National Income in 2025 to the UN target of 0.7% of GNI. With
Australia budgeting $5.209 billion for aid in 2026–27, reaching the target would
require investment of approximately $20 billion annually at current income levels.
This is increasingly urgent following the dismantling of USAID and the abrupt
withdrawal of US-funded programs across much of the Global South, which has
disrupted essential health, food security, education and humanitarian services.
Expanding foreign aid could support approximately 5,000 additional APS jobs if
AusAID were restored. This estimate is based on the former AusAID’s staffing level
of 1,724 APS employees administering an aid program of approximately $5.2 billion
before its abolition. For CPSU members, this means secure, skilled and unionised
public-sector employment while advancing progress on poverty reduction, health,
education, gender equality, climate justice, strong institutions and the broader UN
Sustainable Development Goals. Critically, Members United supports foreign aid only
in a context of genuine self-determination by aid recipient countries.

Reform the unfair Fair Work Act
Members United recognises that the right of workers to band together collectively
to withdraw their labour is a fundamental human and democratic right. This right
is severely curtailed by the Fair Work Act. We are committed to campaigning for
enhanced recognition of workers’ rights to strike through winning changes to the Fair
Work Act to remove constraints on the ability of workers to collectively organise. The
right to strike must not be limited to bargaining periods.

A democratic, regulated, pro-worker approach to AI in the public
service
Members United will demand that agencies deeply engage with the issue of the use
of Artificial Intelligence in the public service. Decisions need to be made by humans,
not bots. Public service work is human work that is based on comprehensive
research, reflection and engagement between the bureaucracy, the community,
and the elected ministers. These relationships of trust, engagement, and free
and frank advice cannot be replaced by computer systems. The public service
builds and maintains democratic values, processes and structures and the public
interest. Corporate AI systems do not share these values and goals. To the extent
that any Artificial Intelligence applications are utilised, they should be publicly and
democratically controlled with clear transparency and safety guardrails.
Members United are concerned about the current way that AI is being used in
the public service without proper laws, regulation, enforcement, training and
transparency. It is not good enough that agencies are left to do this work on a
case-by-case basis. The use of AI in recruitment and decision making amplifies
the biases in the training material. This is deeply concerning for our inclusive
service and society. We demand the establishment of a robust, well-resourced and
comprehensive regulatory agency in Australia to deal with Artificial Intelligence as a
matter of urgency.