Hundreds of unionised ABC staff voted unanimously in favour of a protected action ballot on Friday, taking the first step towards a strike after pay negotiations stalled over wages and rules on short-term contracts.
About 450 ABC-employed members of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance voted in favour of the ballot, indicating a potential strike as soon as next month.
The vote, which included ABC staff from across its national newsrooms, came after bargaining talks between ABC management and union representatives on Thursday that did not yield a breakthrough.
The union told staff that after the summer break, management had returned to the table with no improvements to their previous pay offer tabled 12 weeks ago.
“It’s time to STRIKE,” its email said on Thursday.
The ABC’s last offer, authorised by managing director Hugh Marks, included a 10 per cent pay rise across three years. The 10 per cent comprises a 3.5 per cent rise in the first year, followed by rises of 3.25 per cent in the second and third years. In December, inflation increased to 3.8 per cent.
There remains some distance between the two parties. The union is asking for a 5.5 per cent rise each year, totalling 16.5 per cent, plus improved pay band progression.
Following the meeting, the union’s media section director, Cassie Derrick, said the ABC had gone months without providing a “decent” offer.
“Staff at our ABC take their responsibility to the Australian public very seriously, and they need secure, sustainable jobs to be able to deliver the news and content that we need from them,” Derrick said.
The union representing non-journalistic ABC staff, the Community and Public Sector Union, is expected to conduct a similar vote next week.
An ABC spokesperson said its proposal was fair and reasonable and that its offer of 10 per cent was more than the expected 8.3 per cent increase in operational funding it will receive from the government over the same period.
“The ABC continues to negotiate in good faith and, despite reports to the contrary, has offered possible options on the issues of progression and job security,” the spokesperson said.
Strikes at the ABC are expected to begin in March, after paperwork is lodged with the industrial umpire and union members vote on a formal ballot to approve various industrial measures.
It is common for unions to vote to strike as a negotiating tactic. Ballots often also authorise union members to take industrial action that stops short of a strike, such as refusing overtime, not using workplace communications tools and plastering offices with union paraphernalia.
As well as what they say are poor band progression conditions for staff on low wages, contract positions, as opposed to ongoing jobs, have become a defining feature of the negotiations.
The media union took the ABC to the Federal Court over its use of such insecure contracts. The ABC has since converted 150 staff to permanent positions.
About 10 per cent of ABC staff are on insecure contracts, which the ABC has said gives its budget the “right level of flexibility”.
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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.