The Federal Government appears to be holding its ground on a pay offer to Australian Public Service (APS) employees.

Despite increasing industrial action from the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), talks with the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) are reportedly at a standstill.

Both sides are stuck on the current offer of an 11.2 per cent wage increase over three years, proposed last month.

September 28th was the deadline to finalise the APS employee package, with the APSC's chief negotiator, Peter Riordan, expressing optimism about additional benefits and provisions but uncertainty regarding the pay offer.

The pay offer increased by a mere 0.7 per cent from the previous 10.5 per cent, which was rejected in May. 

Even though the CPSU unofficially polled its 50,000 members, with 51.9 per cent in favour of accepting the 11.2 per cent offer, the union hesitated to recommend it.

The union initially sought a 20 per cent pay increase, which Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher labelled as “impossible to deliver”.

The stalemate has led to an application by the CPSU for protected actions by its members through the Fair Work Commission.

These actions include an ‘auxiliary code ban’, followed by a series of one-hour stop-work meetings and a 24-hour strike at Services Australia.

The strike's impact on the public was fairly minimal, with fewer than 3,000 of the agency's 28,000 employees absent from work. Payments and services were not disrupted, and normal wait times were reported by clients.

The APSC stated that the government remains committed to the current pay and conditions package, representing the largest offer to APS employees in over a decade.

CPSU National Secretary Melissa Donnelly has called on the government to reconsider its pay offer, but the government seems unlikely to initiate changes, stating that the Chief Negotiator remains available for negotiations if the unions and employee representatives wish to reconsider the offer.

The union has also filed for further protected action ballots in other agencies, including the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.