The main public sector union says the Albanese government is trying to “wind back hard-won flexibility” in the APS, even as Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher trumpets the need for the bureaucracy to “set the standard” in supporting women.
“If this government wants to be a model employer, it must back its words with action and commit to protecting flex time,” Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Rebecca Fawcett told The Canberra Times.
“Our members are calling on the Commonwealth to reverse its decision to weaken flex time access, and to stop ignoring the unions calls to strengthen time off in lieu for [Executive Level 1 and 2 employees].”
The Commonwealth has proposed to standardise flex time and restrict how much time APS employees can accumulate above their standard working hours under a flexible working arrangement to an agency’s standard working week, while capping the amount of flex time that can be taken in advance of being accrued (going into debit) to a maximum of 10 hours.
It wants agencies’ operational needs to be factored into approval decisions, with a standard four-week cycle to record, balance and settle flex time entitlements across the APS.
Senator Gallagher, who is also the Minister for Women, told Senate estimates last week that the APS “should lead the way” in supporting women returning from maternity leave to their roles in the federal public service and that this was “an ongoing piece of work” being addressed through bargaining.
“It’s a model employer; it has to set the standard,” she said, responding to questions about an ABC 4Corners episode in which 24 women in the public sector said they had faced pregnancy discrimination at work.
“That is a very clear instruction from the APSC, from myself [and] it’s well understood across government.”
The minister said she wanted agencies to make more part-time Executive Level 2 and Senior Executive Service roles available, saying she was hearing from women that the requirement to commit to full-time hours in such positions was a barrier to their career advancement.
Senator Gallagher said the government had “zero tolerance” for agencies discriminating against women.
“Pregnancy discrimination is unlawful and should not occur anywhere … I urge women to come forward if that has been their experience.”
But the CPSU argues that changes sought by the government through bargaining risk weakening flexibility in the APS.
The union’s position is that employees should be able to bank flex time and generally be able to use it at the time of their choosing and that requests should not be unreasonably refused.
Members fear that changes will disempower public servants from balancing work with other needs and priorities, restrict choice and control over when they perform work and limit access to genuine flexibility – an issue important to women, parents and carers.
“The CPSU fought hard to win groundbreaking flexible work arrangements in the last round of bargaining, so why in this round is the Commonwealth trying to wind back flex time that will send women working in the public sector backwards?” Ms Fawcett said.
The entitlements were crucial to improving work-life balance, gender equity and workforce participation for public sector women, she said.
The Commonwealth’s preliminary position, as negotiations continue, is that a strong framework for supporting flexible work should remain in place based on individual circumstances, while recognising the different operational requirements of agencies.
The 2026 APS Employment Conditions Survey found that 79 per cent of respondents identified workplace flexibility as a condition they were most satisfied with in their current enterprise bargaining agreement, while the 2026 APS Employee Census found 86 per cent were confident that a request for a flexible working arrangement would be given “reasonable consideration.”
Senator Gallagher told the Finance and Public Administration committee last week that the government had “done a lot of reform in the APS to ensure that there are good conditions of employment for everyone who works here”.
“That’s why we’ve extended parental leave [to] the non-birth parent,” she said.
“It’s why we’ve got the flexibility arrangements in the EBA, which [is] ensuring that we are supporting people with different caring responsibilities in the workplace, and it will continue.”
Australian Public Service Commission chief negotiator Alison Stott has said the Commonwealth wants to preserve “the bias towards yes and no fixed caps on the number of days employees can request to work flexibly” in the current EBA.
But the Commonwealth’s preliminary position was that “the different roles and operational needs across agencies” needed to be considered.
A common condition on flex time would promote “a more consistent approach across the APS,” Ms Stott said.
First published in Canberra Times on November 2, 2026 as ‘Union accuses Albanese govt of trying to ‘wind back’ hard-won flexibility for women in the APS’ by Dana Daniel.
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