Chapter 9: Employment instruments and Individual Flexibility Arrangements
Employees within the APS generally have their employment terms and conditions set by one of the following primary employment instruments:
- Enterprise Agreements (EA)
- Public Service Act Determinations (s24 (1) and (3)) (PSAD)
- Common Law Agreements (CLA)
- Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA)
The majority of non-SES employees are employed under an EA. Less than 1% are covered by PSADs, CLAs or AWAs (Table 9.1).
| Primary Employment Instrument | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classification | AWA | CLA | EA | PSAD |
| Grad. | 1,817 | |||
| APS 1 | 512 | |||
| APS 2 | 3 | 2,454 | ||
| APS 3 | 7 | 13,644 | 33 | |
| APS 4 | 45 | 27,050 | 6 | |
| APS 5 | 33 | 19,542 | 15 | |
| APS 6 | 1 | 49 | 31,805 | 22 |
| EL 1 | 2 | 74 | 24,704 | 50 |
| EL 2 | 7 | 59 | 11,229 | 56 |
| SES 1 | 10 | 235 | 22 | 1,685 |
| SES 2 | 8 | 58 | 8 | 469 |
| SES 3 | 9 | 110 | ||
| ALL | 28 | 572 | 132,787 | 2,446 |
A small percentage (2.7%) of employees have additional terms and conditions provided under a secondary agreement known as an Individual Flexibility Arrangement (IFA). Table 9.2 shows that the majority of employees using IFAs were at the EL 1 or EL 2 classification, with both forming just over 70% of all staff using IFAs.
| Classification | Headcount | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Grad. | 2 | 0.1 |
| APS 1 | 1 | |
| APS 2 | 1 | |
| APS 3 | 48 | 1.3 |
| APS 4 | 123 | 3.4 |
| APS 5 | 221 | 6.0 |
| APS 6 | 654 | 17.8 |
| EL 1 | 1,102 | 30.1 |
| EL 2 | 1,488 | 40.6 |
| SES 1 | 24 | 0.7 |
| SES 2 | 2 | 0.1 |
| SES 3 | nil | nil |
| ALL | 3,666 |
In 2018, agencies were asked to categorise the type of IFAs used to gain a clearer picture of the types of matters that IFAs covered. Figure 9.1 shows that three quarters of IFAs were used for pay and allowances. A further 19% covered leave, income maintenance, flexible working arrangements, superannuation, and subscriptions or memberships.
