The Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) has today lodged an application to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for a protected action ballot, the first step towards potential industrial action. AFPA President Alex Caruana said that the application for a protected action ballot was required before any industrial action could occur.
“This course of action is the only way forward due to the restrictiveness of the Government’s Public Sector Workplace Relations Policy 2023 and the non-APS bargaining parameters forming part of that policy.
“Our application has been lodged, and we’ll wait for the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to respond and
the FWC to make their decision,” Mr Caruana said.
The AFPA recently surveyed its membership, with over 1800 members participating. An overwhelming majority (75 per cent) of respondents endorsed industrial action to advocate for a better pay offer. Mr Caruana said that the AFPA had a mandate from its members to safeguard their workplace conditions and seek the best enterprise agreement possible.
“As the bargaining framework sits today, we can’t achieve this and would be lumped with an enterprise agreement unfit for an operational law enforcement agency. The recent survey showed that over 90 per cent of the 1800 participants would reject the proposed three-year, 11.2 per cent (with no additional allowances) pay rise offered by the government.
“AFP members are the lowest base-paid police officers in the country. These are the same police and Protective Service Officers protecting politicians, guarding critical infrastructure such as Parliament House and Pine Gap, and protecting Australian children from the dangers of child exploitation.
“They are also the same officers and staff members keeping the ACT community safe and the same officers who have restrained over $1.1 billion in criminal assets in the past four years. They seized more than 26.8 tonnes of illicit drugs and precursors in the 2022-2023 financial year while saving the Australian public from roughly $10.7 billion in harm.
“Yet, we are stuck with a bargaining policy that won’t allow the AFPA to bargain with the AFP to provide pay rises that are competitive with private enterprise and other law enforcement agencies,” Mr Caruana said.
For comments: AFPA Media and Government Relations Manager – Mr Troy Roberts – media@afpa.org.au / 0409 812 690
