Public servants are expected to cause more disruptions at international airports when they take industrial action next week.

Community and Public Sector Union members at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection will walk off the job on Monday in a series of rolling four-hour work stoppages.

The warning of looming stoppages came as Senator Eric Abetz, leading bargaining negotiations for the Abbott government, pointed to the latest Employee Living Cost Index to prove pay offers so far had been fair.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics index figures, released on Wednesday, showed an increase in the cost of living for employee households of 0.9 per cent for the year to June 2015.

Senator Abetz said while wage offers to the federal public sector had been low they should be considered in the context of the latest figures.

"Unlike the CPSU, Australian public service employees understand that the government needs to live within its means," he said.

"It is simply not possible to agree to the CPSU's claims without it resulting in 10,000 job losses across the sector."

Senator Abetz repeated a point made in the past that the Australian Council of Trade Unions in a 2012 edition of its Wages Report said the index, sometimes called the Analytical Living Cost Index, was "generally better than the CPI for measuring the change in the purchasing power of workers' wages".

The CPSU's action next week will be a continuation of the industrial action that has bubbled away for six months as public servants attempt to soften the Abbott government's stance on bargaining.

CPSU members at the Department of Agriculture will also be taking industrial action including stoppages and bans at a range of sites during the same period.

Some Australian Border Force marine unit staff will take part in "in port" bans during the coming week by refusing to load and unload stores, rubbish and equipment, or do pre-departure checks and maintenance activities.

A union statement said members who had essential national security, counter-terrorism and specialist biosecurity hazard roles would be exempt.

"Public sector workers on our borders undertake important, difficult and sometimes dangerous jobs on behalf of our community," CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said

"They deserve better than the Abbott government's attack on their rights, conditions and take-home pay."