More than 420 Bureau of Statistics public servants have voted to accept a new pay and conditions deal in a fresh sign that the long industrial stand-off in the Commonwealth bureaucracy may be coming to an end.
The bureau was able to turn a 70 per cent 'no' vote, from its interviewers late last year into a 87 per cent 'yes' vote by taking a "more reasonable" approach to negotiations, according to the main workplace union.
But the CPSU still said the interviewers had been ripped-off by being denied up to three years worth of back-pay, banned under the Coalition's hardline industrial policy.
The interviewers will now get pay rises worth 2 per cent, on average, for each year of the three-year deal, but the agreement is "front-loaded" with all of the increases, 6 per cent, paid in the first 18 months.
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The yes-vote by the interviewers, who gather data by visiting citizens in their homes, mean the bureau has now settled its two industrial disputes after the main workforce voted by a 55 per cent majority in May 2016 to accept a deal offered under the Coalition's public sector bargaining framework.
But CPSU deputy secretary Melissa Donnelly said the interviewers were able to hold onto the rights and conditions that they feared would be stripped under the proposal they rejected late last year.
"We're pleased with the progress that's been made, with ABS Interviewers now holding on to the enforceable rights and conditions that are so important to them and their crucial work, and on that basis we did not oppose this agreement," Ms Donnelly said.
"There was a marked change in attitude from ABS management in the wake of last December's 70 per cent no vote, and that willingness to finally engage in meaningful negotiations with the CPSU got us to this point.
"As a result of that changed attitude, the new offer that ABS Interviewers was a substantial improvement from that voted down late last year."
But the lack of back pay remained an issue, Ms Donnelly said.
"It's massively unfair that this new agreement won't include back-pay, given that negotiations have dragged on for so long through no fault of interviewers, but at least they can now put this unwelcome distraction behind them and focus fully on providing the ABS with reliable, quality data," she said.
The latest move toward industrial peace comes as workforces in the ATO, the CSIRO, the Defence Department and other federal government outfits consider offers from their bosses as they seek to end disputes that have rumbled on since, in some cases, 2014.
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