Queensland's public sector union has welcomed a new pay offer from the government but insists bureaucrats could have received more.
The government struck an in-principle agreement with unions that, if accepted, will see a 2.5 per cent pay rise per year over the next three years given to 48,000 bureaucrats on the core wage agreement.
Those same employees will be offered a one-off payment of $1300 in lieu of back pay, in recognition of the amount of time wage increases were stalled in arbitration.
Together Union secretary Alex Scott says the union is still seeking more conditions from the government, but is happy to have reached a "fair and balanced" agreement to resolve the arbitration impasse.
However, Mr Scott said that if the arbitration process had continued, the government eventually could have had to pay out more in back pay to public servants.
"We've seen an outcome that doesn't fully compensate workers for the wage freeze in 2013, but it does provide a platform moving forward for a fair and reasonable wage outcome," Mr Scott said.
He said senior bureaucrats on higher classifications would have been entitled to more than $1300 in back pay.
"We would have been seeing close to $3000 rather than $1300," Mr Scott said.
"The nature of a one-off payment ... means that the compensation is better for lower-paid workers."
Treasurer Curtis Pitt said not all 48,000 bureaucrats on core agreements would receive $1300, as about 9000 weren't full-time and would only receive the pro-rata equivalent.
Mr Pitt said the pay rise was accounted for in the budget, but the one-off payment wasn't.
"We will of course address those matters at the mid-year update, which I'll be providing later this month," the treasurer said.
Mr Pitt said public servants will get a 2.2 per cent pay rise that was ratified by the former government but won't see the larger pay rise or one-off payment until the in-principle agreement was accepted by the workforce.
That's expected to occur early next year, he said.
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