Fair Work Commission approves 30-day extension to AFPA industrial action

The Fair Work Commission has approved a 30-day extension to the protected industrial action (PIA) currently being undertaken by the Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA).

In handing down the decision, deputy president of the commission Peter Hampton noted the Commonwealth (as represented by the AFP) had no objection to the union’s request.

The AFPA believes federal police officers deserve more than the 11.2 per cent pay rise over three years for Australian Public Service employees.

In its discussions with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) hierarchy, the union is asking for a 20 per cent pay rise plus allowances.

PIA is taken by employees and their union representatives during negotiations for a new enterprise agreement (EA) or when disputes arise in the workplace. It can involve strikes, stoppages of work, bans on performing certain tasks, and other actions aimed at putting pressure on employers to address employees’ concerns during bargaining.

Of concern to the Federal Government is a threat from the union to withdraw some services from parliamentarians, Parliament House and Canberra Airport during the current sitting fortnight.

The AFP declared as of 12 August “it is not lawful for the AFPA to take any protected action that withdraws protection from Parliamentarians, APH or Canberra Airport during the first week of the Parliament sitting period”.

“That is because this type of action requires five full business days’ notice and a valid notice has not yet been received,” the statement read. “If the AFP is notified of protected industrial action that could impact on next week’s sitting [12-15 August], the AFP would strenuously oppose this application in the Fair Work Commission.

“The AFP encourages the AFPA to be mindful of its language, noting any baseless suggestion that resources could lawfully be withdrawn can have a chilling impact on stakeholders and the wider public.

“Just recently, the National Terror Threat was raised to Probable. The AFP is also responding to more threats against parliamentarians.

“The AFP will not tolerate any action that threatens the functioning of Australian democracy or the safety of any member of the public.”

Following the statement’s release, a post on the union’s Facebook page called it out as “factually incorrect” and encouraged the AFP “to do their due diligence”.

“If they did, they would know that ‘walk out’ provisions have already been approved for up to thirty minutes, and our members have had the ability to do this since 24 April 2024,” the post read. “We politely request the AFP to correct the record.”

The post included a letter from AFPA president Alex Caruana, sent to ACT Chief Police Officer Scott Lee, AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw and Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett on 18 April.

It proclaims that under the Fair Work Act and the commission’s own order, if the AFPA provides three days’ written notice to members it can:

“…undertake the periodic interruption of work of a shift between 10:00am and 12:00 noon applicable to each time zone (or as notified 24 hours in advance), to allow members to speak to the public, media, politicians and/or government representatives about the public about the AFPA industrial relations campaign for a period of up to 30 minutes.”

While no strike took place during the first week of this current sitting period, Belco Party candidate for the ACT seat of Yerrabi, Jason Taylor, communicated his disgust about the AFP’s post.

“This is not just embarrassing, it’s disgraceful,” the former police sergeant said. “Misleading the public and attempting to strong arm a union looking out for its members is outrageous.

“The Australian Federal Police commissioner should replace the EA lead negotiator with someone who’ll be prepared to act in good faith, and not feather the nest of their own career by kowtowing to the government.”