Thousands of CSIRO scientists and researchers are the latest group of government workers to reject the terms of the Coalition's tough industrial relations policy.

The organisation's workforce voted by a margin of 70 per cent against a proposed three-year deal that offered a pay rise of 2 per cent per year but came with deep cuts to conditions and entitlements.

The emphatic rejection of the proposal is understood to be the first no-vote in an industrial ballot in the CSIRO's history. Credit:Andrew Sheargold

Most CSIRO staff have not had a pay rise since 2013 and the Turnbull government is enforcing a ban on back pay so the offer is effectively less than 1 per cent per year in return for trading away swaths of conditions.

The emphatic rejection of the proposal, understood to be the first no-vote in an industrial ballot in the CSIRO's history, means that the dispute in the nation's peak science organisation will drag into its third year.