Australian Public Service matters

The CPSU campaigns on issues that affect members across the Australian Public Service.

This includes:

Bargaining for common pay and conditions across the APS for the first time since the 1990s, achieving significant gains for members in every APS agency. Find out more about APS common conditions.
Securing an APS Consultative Committee for the first time, providing a clear mechanism for union members to have a voice in the big issues affecting the APS.
Political and community campaigning on issues that can only be won in the public domain, by making sure that governments make good decisions about the public services that we all rely on.

Common APS pay and conditions

After winning the right to negotiate common pay and conditions across the APS for the first time since the 1990s, CPSU members made significant progress in achieving commonality of pay and conditions across the APS.

CPSU members won massive improvements to conditions in the first round of APS-wide bargaining — including groundbreaking flexible work rights, 18 weeks’ paid parental leave for both parents, consultation rights, 25% casual loading, new leave types and more.

Importantly, members also won significant movement towards pay equity after decades of pay fragmentation and disparity. Updated pay tables (sign in for access) show that while we have made progress, there is more work to do, and CPSU members will continue to push for more ambitious action to achieve APS pay equity.

CPSU members have done significant work preparing our next round of APS bargaining and you can stay up to date on progress here.

APS Consultative Committee

Service-wide bargaining delivered some ground-breaking conditions that apply across the APS. One of the important outcomes is the establishment of an APS Consultative Committee for the first time in the Australian Public Service.

This is an historic opportunity to create a clear mechanism for union members to be involved in the big issues that affect the APS as a whole.

CPSU members had their say on what issues should be prioritised by our union at the APS Consultative Committee.

Summary of members’ priorities
Latest discussions at the Consultative Committee, including a tracker of progress on members’ priority issues.

Flexible work

In service wide bargaining, we won access to flexible work for all APS employees, including guaranteeing there would be no caps on the number of days employees can work from home.

The CPSU has been building towards this outcome for some time, including supporting research on flexible work and working from home.

More information on the flexible work rights we won in the APS

CPSU representatives work across the APS to track agency approaches to flexible work and ensure best practices policies and processes are promoted in all APS agencies. Where employers attempt to limit employees’ access to flexible work and working from home arise, CPSU representatives resolve issues to ensure members’ rights are enforced.

APS recruitment

CPSU members have endorsed the following principles as the basis for change to recruitment and selection processes in the APS.

Recruitment and selection brought back in-house. APS recruitment processes should not be conducted by external recruitment companies that have a limited understanding of APS role requirements.
Safeguards to protect the merit principle. Agencies should be required to establish a merit advisory committee, which regularly consults the union, to provide advice to selection panels on the design of recruitment processes to ensure recruitment decisions are based on merit, and support diversity in the APS.
Guidelines for merit pools. In consultation with the CPSU, the APSC should develop mandatory guidelines for the use of merit pools that ensure transparency and fairness in promotion and engagement decisions.
Scrutiny of common recruitment practices. The APS must take a close look at whether psychometric testing, one-way video interviews, and other highly generalised tools are appropriate.
Recruitment practices to support diversity. The APS must consult unions and employees with lived experience to design recruitment processes that support greater diversity in the APS.
AI risks to be examined. Artificial Intelligence should not be used in recruitment processes until the APS Consultative Committee has examined the potential benefits and risks, and reported findings to the APS Commissioner.

The CPSU has commenced discussion with agencies to seek improvements to APS recruitment and selection practices.

The Public Service Regulations have been amended to give new powers to the Merit Protection Commissioner (MPC) to review promotion decisions, which came into effect on 1 April 2025. CPSU members identified recruitment practices as their second-highest priority for the APS-wide consultative committee to address. These are very significant changes for CPSU members: they give the power to the MPC to look at the entirety of the recruitment process, including the advertisement of the role, the details of the selection processes that are utilised, and the final decision. More details, including a member-exclusive fact-sheet are available here.

Union win on fairer recruitment and selection in the APS

CPSU members have been calling for fairer recruitment and selection processes in the APS, and we have been having discussions with major APS agencies to fix their practices.

Recruitment brought back in-house

In a significant development, Services Australia has agreed to bring recruitment back in-house in its largest area (Customer Service Delivery Group), for APS5 roles and above. This means companies like Chandler McLeod will no longer be running the process for these roles.

CPSU members have campaigned long and hard for this outcome, which the union will seek to extend to the rest of the agency, and to roles at all levels.

The agency has also agreed that for these roles, debunked psychometric testing will not be used, and AI will no longer be used to screen for key words in employees’ applications.

What about the rest of the APS?

We are seeing some progress on outsourcing and AI. Here’s a progress report so far.

Agencies that won’t outsource their recruitment & are not using AI to filter candidates:

Department of Education
Prime Minister and Cabinet
ABS

Agencies that have agreed not to use AI in recruitment:

ATO
DCCEEW
NDIA

We want to see all agencies make these commitments.

There is a lot more work to be done, with members raising concerns about the fair and transparent use of merit pools, and the damaging impact misuse of merit pools has on existing employees.

Read more about what the CPSU has been doing to fix recruitment and selection in the APS in the CPSU ACC discussion paper on recruitment and selection processes here.

Specialists, professionals, and work-level standards

For some time, the CPSU has been putting forward proposals to ensure that the APS classifies its employees correctly and takes steps to implement measure to attract and retain employees in areas of critical skill shortage.

We pursue outcomes in bargaining and in discussions with agencies and the APSC.

Work level standards

In bargaining, CPSU members sought a review of the APS Work Level Standards. We know that the WLS are too general and vague to ensure that employees are classified correctly, and this has seen work pushed down to lower levels without recognition of the complexity of the work or fair remuneration. The CPSU will pursue this further in the APS Consultative Committee.

Measures to attract and retain where there are critical skill shortages

The CPSU also proposed a mechanism for a clear, fair, and equitable mechanism to pay appropriate pay rates where there are critical skill shortages as the preferred approach in the APS, instead of using Individual Flexibility Arrangements. This model is adapted from the “Building Defence Capability Payment”, which exists in Defence. We will need to keep campaigning on this issue, which was not resolved in the last round of bargaining.

Greater use of broadbands

The CPSU proposed that the APS work with the CPSU over the life of enterprise agreements to examine opportunities to create consistent broadbands for specialists and professionals. The CPSU also proposed specific proposals for an ICT broadband (APS5-EL1) and a legal broadband (APS5-EL1) to be implemented in agencies where there are no existing ICT or legal broadbands. These issues were not resolved in bargaining and the CPSU will seek further discussion in the APS Consultative Committee.

Paid Parental Leave

The CPSU has campaigned hard over the years for improvements to paid parental leave. We have done this through bargaining, and also by advocating for changes to legislation.

Read the CPSU submission to the Maternity Leave Act Review

In bargaining, we campaigned for and won significant improvements to paid parental leave for birth, adoption and long-term foster care.

Common conditions across the APS now include:

18 weeks’ paid parental leave for both parents.
The right to use paid parental leave flexibly in the first two years after birth or placement of the child.
No qualifying period for employees to access paid parental leave entitlements. This means that even if you are new to the APS, you are able to access paid parental leave.

Find out more in CPSU's detailed Paid Parental Leave fact sheet.

Respect@Work

The CPSU has been a strong voice on the need for governments, employers and unions to do more to stop sexual violence and discrimination in the workplace.

The CPSU, delegates, and members are committed to working with agencies to ensure safer and more respectful workplaces in the APS.

Positive duty obligations arising from Respect@Work reform require APS agencies to assess and put in place measures to eliminate sexual discrimination, harassment and victimisation in workplaces as far as reasonably practicable.

In bargaining, the union has secured provisions that require agencies to take a holistic approach to preventing workplace sexual harassment, sex-discrimination and other relevant unlawful conduct and having regard to relevant AHRC guidance. Importantly, employees and their union are required to be consulted in development and implementation of relevant measures and policies.

Consultation on these important changes formed part of the first meeting of the APS Consultative Committee. CPSU representatives at agency consultative forums are ensuring discussions are held to take a consultative and proactive approach to eliminating sex-discrimination and sexual harassment.

CPSU members also have access to information on their rights and how to access support and representation should they need it.

Find out more: Respect@Work resources

Diversity

CALD

Through service-wide bargaining the union has won important outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) employees across the APS, including:

3 days paid cultural leave for significant cultural and religious obligations
Ability for employees to substitute public holidays in addition to paid cultural leave
APS-wide Community Language Allowance (CLA) to recognise diverse skills and knowledge

Resource: Cultural Leave fact sheet

The CPSU has been a strong voice on the need for a whole of service CALD Employment Strategy to address the structural and systemic barriers to career progression experienced by CALD employees.

Through 2023, the CPSU engaged with the APSC Taskforce in the development of the APS CALD Employment Strategy. Members insights and lived experience directly shaped our advocacy.

In May 2024, the Government released its inaugural APS CALD Employment Strategy which includes a target of 24% CALD representation in SES positions to address the lack of cultural diversity at senior levels. Consistent with member feedback there are measures to build cultural and racial literacy, design more inclusive processes, enhance cultural safety and respect.

The development of agency specific plans will be critical to realising the service-wide strategy’s overall aims and ensuring substantive change. It is vital that the lived experience of CALD members are centred in the development of those plans – and the consultative forum is another important avenue for workers to be heard.

Find out more about the CPSU’s advocacy on improving cultural and racial diversity in the workplace, including:

Disability

The CPSU Accessibility Network is a union community committed to addressing the challenges faced by people with disabilities in the APS.

CPSU members with disabilities in the APS have highlighted diverse concerns, including:

Delays in accessing workplace adjustments
Disrespectful treatment inconsistent with the APS Code of Conduct
Caregiving burdens
Limited career mobility
The necessity for better training programs and consultation during accommodation improvements or site moves

Following APS-wide bargaining, the Accessibility Network has been instrumental in our union’s strategic approach to winning access to paid disability leave through agency policy.

We have won access to 10 days’ paid disability leave in a range of agencies, including NDIA, FWO, and DITRDCA. We are continuing to pursue this across the APS.

By creating a dedicated space for members to share concerns and aspirations, the CPSU Accessibility Network fosters collective campaigns that bring about meaningful change.

Find out more and join the Accessibility Network.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment

The CPSU’s advocacy and campaigning on issues of importance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is led by our National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Caucus (NATSIC).

The NATSIC is a CPSU member network that provides a united voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members, delegates, activists and workers.

In bargaining, we campaigned for and won improvements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members. These include:

6 days ceremonial leave over 2 years (taken in whole or part days)
1 day NAIDOC per year for First Nations employees
3 days cultural leave for employees not eligible for ceremonial and NAIDOC leave (taken in whole or part days)
Definition of family to include kinship
Indigenous languages included in Community Language Allowance (CLA Level 1 rate of $26.53 per week), with employees utilising language skills for higher level kills such interpreting able to access CLA Level 2. Agencies with more generous entitlements will retain them.
Agencies required to consider connection to country and cultural obligations when approving flexible work requests.
Mandatory requirement for EL2 employees to undergo cultural competency training within 6 months or promotion or engagement.

Resource: Factsheet on First Nations employment

Artificial intelligence

There is a growing focus on AI and what it means for the way we work. We know that AI is already being used in the APS, and it’s important that workers have a say on its use and in ensuring it is developed and implemented in a safe and responsible way.

The CPSU surveyed APS workers on their insights and experiences of AI at work and published the results in our report, The use of Artificial Intelligence in the Australian Public Service.

CPSU submissions and resources on AI: