ABC, unions and staff pave way for new post-strike pay deal

The ABC, Australia’s national broadcaster, has offered beleaguered staff a new pay deal, amid ongoing enterprise bargaining negotiations which led to its first strike in 20 years last week.

Jocelyn Gammie

Staff unions the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) welcomed the revised offer, which includes a 10.5% pay increase over three years (with year one backdated to October 2025), and improved pay-band progression pathways.

The revised offer comes after last Wednesday’s protected industrial action, which saw more than 2,000 ABC staff engage in a 24-hour strike, and Monday’s Fair Work Commission hearing, in which representatives of the ABC, MEAA and the CPSU were present.

The CPSU’s ABC section secretary Jocelyn Gammie, said: “After many hours of intense negotiations with ABC management and other unions in the Fair Work Commission yesterday, the CPSU bargaining team and delegates are now in a position where they can recommend that members support the new improved offer.”

The MEAA chief Erin Madeley added that while the ABC’s revised position does not fully address every issue in its claim, “there has been significant movement on the key issues of pay and progression.”

ABC staff will vote later this week on whether they will accept the enhanced offer from ABC management.