If you asked most Australians, they would probably agree with the principle of a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
The union movement in this country has spent more than 100 years fighting for that very principle.
And they would almost certainly agree it's only fair that two people, doing the same work, should be paid the same, and have the same protections.
Particularly when that work is for the federal government.
So as Australian workers have most recently gone through the annual ritual of filing their tax returns, they may be surprised to know that some Australian Taxation Office staff they are seeking help from over the phone do not, in fact, work for the ATO.
And not only that, but those workers also answering the phones are being paid less than the equally dedicated public servants they work alongside, in call centres, patiently helping Australians through the sometimes-confusing process of claiming their returns.
What makes this situation disconcerting is that it directly undermines the government's own "Same Job, Same Pay" legislation, which was introduced to stop this very scenario - employers using labour hire workers to undercut the pay and conditions of permanent employees.
Probe Operations, Probe Asia Pacific, Serco Citizen Services, Concentrix Services - supply almost 2000 call centre workers to the ATO.
These companies hold contracts to the value of $316 million with the ATO, which they claim is a good deal for the government, even though the ATO could directly employ the same number of workers for considerably less.
This model's effect and intention are simple: to drive down labour costs for the ATO, create insecure employment for public sector workers, undercut wages bargained by ATO employees and unions in enterprise agreements, and undermine the collective strength of directly employed workforce.
A former call centre worker, Nathan Brunne, who had been employed by private equity-backed Probe, has applied for orders against Probe to require it to pay the same pay rates to its employees as paid to direct ATO employees.
The CPSU has made its own separate application against Probe and other providers with hearings being held this week. But Brunne's opponents at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) are not the federal government or the ATO. Both have distanced themselves from the issue, saying it is a matter for the outsourcing companies to resolve.
In his submission to the FWC, Brunne has claimed that the pay gap between direct ATO employees and those employed by the labour hire companies is a massive 40 per cent.
Let's be clear - the outsourced call centre workers might not be sitting in the same buildings as public servants, but they perform the same tasks, they use the same equipment, they are held to the same standards of service. They operate in the same virtual call centre.
Yet, the outsourcing companies are claiming that they don't, in fact, act as labour hire companies. Contrary to all evidence, they claim to be offering a "service", which would exempt them from the "Same Job, Same Pay" laws.
This is even though the call centre workers they provide perform the same tasks and duties as public servants.
This legal fiction creates a giant loophole that the laws were designed to close off. They claim that if they were forced to pay their workers the same as the public sector employees they work alongside, their business model would collapse, they would be forced to make redundancies, the ATO would be impacted financially, and there would be a wave of wage demands across their business. Claim all they like, we know this outsourcing arrangement is unfair and leads to worse outcomes for Australian taxpayers and the community.
Outsourced call centre workers are under pressure to meet unworkable KPIs that focus on quantity over quality, which leads to double-handling and re-working for ATO employees, and means taxpayers don't get the help they need. And it is not good enough for the ATO, or the federal government, to look the other way and say, "not our problem".
These are the government's own policies, its own laws, and its own stated commitments to workers' rights being undermined. The ATO needs to do better. It needs to invest taxpayers' dollars in delivering services Australians rely on and stop wasting money on outsourcing public sector work.
And the government needs to do better. It needs to be bolder in directing agencies to invest in public sector jobs and bring them inhouse.
Trained and trusted public sector workers do vital work delivering services that keep our communities safe and secure. It is only fair that workers doing the same job are treated equally and with dignity.
It was the union movement who fought for a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. The CPSU is proudly carrying that fight forward for public sector workers across Australia.
Rebecca Fawcett is the Deputy Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union
First published in Canberra Times on September 8, 2026 as 'Tax office call centre staff face pay gap
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