Australian immigration officers strike at airports, ports

Canberra, Sep 26 (IANS) Australia's Immigration and Border Force officials on Monday commenced a two-week long strike in airports and cruise ship ports across the country protesting against a long-running dispute with the government over pay rise, authorities said.

Members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) had previously said a strike would not occur if the government agreed to a 12.5 per cent pay rise, but the union's national secretary Nadine Flood said workers were fed-up with the government's reluctance to discuss the pay rise, Xinhua news agency reported.

"These workers are trying to get the government to take this seriously and give us someone to sit down with and resolve this longstanding mess," Flood said.

"Under Prime Minister Turnbull they haven't talked to us in a year."

Border Force released a statement on Monday warning passengers to get to airports early, but said there were arrangements in place in case of emergency.

"We have contingency arrangements in place to minimise the impact of stoppages on business operations," the statement said.

Government senator Eric Abetz described the CPSU's demands as "unrealistic" and said a 12.5 per cent pay rise would result in the loss of more than 10,000 public sector jobs.