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The Immigration Department and Border Force says its public servants could score pay rises of nearly 11 per cent in the next three years, if they sign up to a new enterprise bargaining deal.
But the department's workplace union has dismissed Immigration's bargaining gambit, saying workers there will be guaranteed only 4.7 per cent if they accept the offers, a big reduction from the 6 per cent that was resoundingly rejected in March this year.
The department says the "vast majority" of its workers will get increases of between 6.4 per cent and 10.7 per cent through a combination of top-up payment to address pay disparities and "performance-based" increases.
But the pay offer comes with eight pages of fine print and complex tables and the Community and Public Sector Union says Immigration and Border Force workers are likely to end up with pay rises of less than 5 per cent and deep cuts to their entitlements.
The union says the new offer is a "smoke and mirrors" trick designed to disguise deep cuts to allowances, entitlements and workplace conditions while offering a pay rise of just 4.7 per cent to a workforce whose wages have effectively been frozen since 2013.
The department's pitch to workers says they could score pay rises well in excess of the 2 per cent per year cap imposed by the Coalition's controversial public sector bargaining policy.
"Over the life of the proposed three-year agreement, the combination of general pay rises and higher top-of-range salaries will deliver pay increases between 6.4 per cent and 10.7 per cent for a vast majority of employees," the offer states.
"The average increase equates to 6 per cent over the life of the agreement.
"More than 70 per cent of employees will receive an increase between 6.4 per cent and 10.7 per cent over the life of the three-year agreement through general pay increases and performance-based salary advancement resulting from the increase to top-of-range salaries."
The department also promises to "grandparent" existing allowances and entitlements.
But the union has told its members that allowances, which make up a large part of the take-home pay for many frontline officers, are still going to be cut under the new offer, and that many departmental public servants will be asked to work longer hours under the proposal.
The CPSU says there will be no back-pay under the offer and that it is a simple-divide-and conquer ruse with some sections of the workforce set to do much better than others.
The union's national secretary, Nadine Flood, said the latest offer showed the department and its political bosses had learnt nothing from the resounding rejection of its last offer in March.
"This latest offer from Immigration and Border Force shows the department and government is making absolutely no effort to respond to the very real concerns of our members, in fact quite the opposite," Ms Flood said.
"This offer is worse for thousands of staff than the one they overwhelmingly rejected six months ago, still stripping away the rights and conditions of all staff while cutting take-home pay for some."
