Scientists and other staff at the CSIRO will take industrial action following months of stalled negotiation over a new industrial agreement.

More than 88% of staff polled at the research agency – which has been forced to shed one in five of its employees over the past two years – voted in favour of industrial action, which will begin with work bans but may escalate to strikes.

The union representing CSIRO workers said the impasse was due the federal government’s public-sector bargaining policy, which prohibits wage increases unless they are traded for conditions or productivity increases.

The proposed agreement seeks to cancel one day of Christmas leave, tie salary progression to higher performance standards and reduce the value of redundancy packages.

“The CSIRO workforce is being asked to accept cuts to their conditions and their rights at work. That’s clearly unacceptable and Staff Association members have voted emphatically to defend their interests through a campaign of industrial action,” the CSIRO Staff Association secretary, Sam Popovski, said.

He said scientists at the agency, which suffered a $115m funding cut in last year’s federal budget, felt as though “they are being targeted for doing their job, for fulfilling their vocation as scientists”.



“And there are no guarantees that CSIRO funding will not be cut again when this year’s federal budget is handed down in less than a month,” Popovski said.

The next round of negotiations with management will take place on 29 April, with industrial action scheduled to begin the following day.

Popovski said the work bans would focus on management reporting and meetings, not scientific research.

“These bans are not designed to harm science, quite the opposite,” he said. “CSIRO staff will instead spend less time on red tape and more time on their research.”

The agency is one of 11 public sector organisations and departments taking or planning industrial action. Others include the Department of Environment, Geoscience Australia and the Bureau of Meteorology.

The current negotiating round is the first under the CSIRO’s new chief executive, the former entrepreneur and venture capitalist Larry Marshall.

The CSIRO has been contacted for comment.