The ABC’s pay peace deal is on the brink of collapse, after the biggest union representing its staff claimed the public broadcaster’s management “backpedalled” on a key tenet of their offer less than a month after many of its staff went on strike for 24 hours.
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) called an urgent meeting on Wednesday to discuss possible further industrial action after it claimed management was backing away from agreed terms on automatic pay rises for some staff. The ABC said the terms of the agreement are still being discussed.
ABC unions and management reached an in-principle pay deal on March 31, which appeared to end an acrimonious period that included the first strike at the broadcaster in decades.
But the alliance told members in an email that, during a meeting on Monday, ABC management had reneged on the terms of a crucial clause which granted automatic pay grade rises to staff on “pay band 5” of the broadcaster’s pay scale.
“Yesterday in a meeting to finalise drafting of the proposed agreement, ABC management limited how far they will backdate progression for staff on band 5,” a union said in an email headlined “URGENT ABC MEAA MEETING”.
“Now that our first strike is behind us, it seems that management has backpedalled on their offer. Management are now asserting that only performance appraisals completed since 2023 will count for the purpose of this clause,” the email continued.
The clause in focus stipulates that staff on pay band 5 progress to the next level after receiving three “exceed ratings” from their bosses. There are around 560 staff currently stuck on this pay band, the union said, and the issue is which of those ratings can be counted and over what time period.
“For our colleagues who have been stuck at the top of the band for many years, this will make it even harder to get the progression they deserve,” a union source said.
An ABC spokesperson said the public broadcaster is working with both the CPSU and MEAA to finalise the drafting of its new Enterprise Agreement, and that the details of band progression were “still being considered”.
“The ABC has put a position to the unions which they will discuss with their members tomorrow,” the spokesperson said.
Staff can already receive a pay rise by being promoted to a new job, and the agreed pay deal comes with a 10.5 per cent pay rise over three years for all staff.
The MEAA has been contacted for comment.
ABC union members are yet to formally accept the pay deal agreed in late March, which bargaining teams and a straw poll of union members endorsed.
The improved proposal, which was accepted in principle just days after the strike last month, included a 4 per cent pay rise in the first year, taking the initial pay rise ahead of current inflation figures.
The 24-hour strike crippled the ABC’s content and news output, shutting down many of its broadcast and digital services, instead airing reruns and BBC content.
Before the first settlement of the dispute, the MEAA quizzed its members on what further industrial action they would consider, including stop-work action for as long as a week during the federal budget in May.
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Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.