Consumer and Competition Commissioner Rod Simms has pleaded with the 800 public servants in his agencies to forget about the unfair treatment they have received and agree to accept the pay proposal they have been offered.
In an "unprecedented" video address to his workers, Mr Simms spoke of his confrontation with the government's workplace enforcer, the Australian Public Service Commission and with the office of Employment Minister Michaelia Cash.
Meanwhile the government's industrial relations war on its public sector workforce is spreading with workers at the Australian Submarine Corporation in Adelaide walking off the job for two days in protest at attempts to impose the Coalition's tough public sector bargaining policy in their workplace.
In his video address, Mr Simms told his public servants that when he tried to raise the question of back pay with the APSC, he was not allowed to finish his sentence.
"We're faced at the moment with a very unusual situation, we've never had this type of bargaining policy we have now from the government," Mr Simms said.
"That amount of time without a payrise is unfair so you need that payrise and you need it now.
"I tried with the Public Service Commission to push back pay, to be honest I never got to finish the sentence."
The Commissioner said worked very hard with the APSC and the bargaining representatives to get "the guts" of the ACCC terms and conditions, which the government wanted stripped-out, back ino the enterprise agreement and urged his workers to vote yes when a new ballot opens.
"The last two-and-half years have been extremely unfortunate.
"You have every reason to feel aggrieved, I understand that.
"But the deal on the table is the best available, I'm afraid that's the reality."
Meantime in Adelaide, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union says the bargaining policy unfairly strips away rights and conditions from the workers at the South Australian submarine manufacturer.
The union says it is not satisfied with Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne's response to its concerns but Mr Pynes said it was a matter for the Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann, who is the shareholder minister of the ASC.
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