CSIRO works out pay deal

The CSIRO says it has finally struck a pay deal with staff, ending months of negotiations and stopwork protests.

CSIRO boss, Megan Clark, on Wednesday said she had received in-principle support from the union, accepting an annual 3.5 per cent increase over three years.

Other issues involving staff consultation, redundancy and redeployment, and parental and maternity leave, had also been resolved, she said in an email to staff.

"CSIRO believes that the offer is fair and responsible, and we look forward to finalising arrangements so that staff have the opportunity to vote on the package," Dr Clark wrote.

The in-principle deal came after more than six months of talks and several protests, the biggest which saw 2000 workers down tools in March at 43 sites across the country.

The CSIRO Staff Association had consistently refused the organisation's offer of 3.25, 3.5 and 3.75 per cent over three years, but appeared to have settled for a 3.5 per cent annual jump.

The new deal should be in place by July 2011.

CSIRO Staff Association president, Michael Borgas, later conceded the deal was not what he'd hoped, but said federal budget pressures had put staff at an early disadvantage.

"We're trying not to guild the lily because we know we didn't get what we wanted ... but we had to be realistic about what we could achieve," he told AAP.

He said the union had achieved some important wins, such as better consultation processes and a crackdown on what workers labelled the "spill and fill" effect.

That was where employees were forced to constantly re-apply for their jobs, allowing management to make easy culls, Dr Borgas said.

He said he believed the CSIRO would ultimately lose out in the pay deal through the loss of scientists, particularly young ones, to higher-paying jobs at universities.

He denied six months of negotiating had been in vain, given the CSIRO's failure to budge on its position.

"There's no disadvantage in fighting the fight," Dr Borgas said.

"If we don't ever argue for better conditions, then they'll never happen."

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