The ACTPS Administrative and Related Classifications Enterprise Agreement has entered its voting period. The voting period closes 14 August 2023, so members must vote before then.

The ACTPS have provided to a copy of the proposed agreement as well as a summary of the changes to the previous agreement on the employee intranet. In case you have not received them, the relevant documents can be found in this zipped folder:

• ACT Public Sector Administrative and Related Classifications Enterprise Agreement 2023 - 2026
• Explanatory Notes – ACTPS Administrative and Related Classifications EA 2023 - 2026
• Table of amendments – Admin Agreement – Admin Agreement
• Materials Referenced – ACT Public Sector Administrative and Related Classifications Enterprise Agreement 2023 - 2026

What is the pay offer?

The pay offer includes a combination of flat dollar increases and percentage increases. These increases and the effective dates are:

• $1,750 flat rate increase in the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2023.
• 1% from the commencement of the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2023.
• $1,750 flat rate increase in the first full pay period on or after 1 December 2023.
• 1.5% from the commencement of the first full pay period on or after 1 December 2024 and $1,500 flat rate increase.
• 1% from the commencement of the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2025.
• 1% from the commencement of the first full pay period on or after 1 December 2025 and $1,000 flat rate increase.

In the simplest terms, this means the lower your current salary, the higher your percentage increase will be. The only members who would receive anything close to a CPI increase are those at the bottom of their classification range.

There are also the following increases to superannuation:

• 0.5% on 01 July 2025
• 0.5% on 01 January 2026

Lastly, the government has included a one-time ‘cost of living supplement’ of $1,250 which will be paid to eligible employees following successful voting up of the agreement. This will be paid in full to full-time employees. Permanent Part Time employees and Casual employees who work less than .5 FTE will only receive a pro-rata amount.

What are the benefits to this Agreement?

Because of the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been no significant change to your agreements since 2018! This means there are a few positive changes being introduced as part of this EA:

• Increasing birthing leave from 18 weeks to 24 weeks effective from 01 January 2023. This means if you are or were on birthing leave on or after 01 January you will be entitled to receive this.
• The government will introduce a salary floor of $62,860 by December 2024.
• When the change to annual accrual to daily accrual of personal leave occurs staff will receive a credit of additional leave to ensure they are never worse off. This credit will either be 18 or 9 days and on a pro-rata basis if permanent part time.
• Higher grade duties will now be payable where an employee works the duties on one day rather than 5 in a row.

What are the downsides to the agreement?

There are several downsides to this agreement, and they all relate to pay. This includes:

• The pay offer does not match CPI, so you are essentially getting a pay cut.
• The pay offer is not backdated to 2022, so this means you only received one pay increase in 2022 instead of the normally scheduled two increases.
• The salary floor that has been committed to does not match the Fair Go agreement the Territory has entered into with mostly male-dominated classifications.
• The flat increases mean most employees do not know what their actual pay increase will be and does not address cost of living pressures for members in higher classifications.

When do you vote?

The voting period commenced on Monday 31 July 2023 and will conclude 14 August 2023. We encourage all members to vote and have their say!