23 September 2013

Homeless public servants to keep their wages

| johnboy
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The ABC has the somewhat reassuring news that public servants in axed agencies will keep their pay and conditions while efforts are made to find them work.

The Public Service Commission has announced public servants will continue to have the same pay while the changes take effect.

“In the case of an agency that has been abolished this will mean that terms and conditions of its former employees will continue to be preserved even though the agency itself has been abolished,” the commission said.

The changes include the abolition of the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, and the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport, with their duties to be redistributed.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations will also be split into two separate departments.

Good luck breaking into the PS while this goes on however!

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Genie said :

Staff arent sitting around doing nothing and getting paid for it. It is business as usual. .

Make up your mind.

magiccar9 said :

So we’re continuing to pay the public servants to do a job that doesn’t exist?
If they were made redundant, then pay them their redundancy package and be done with it. Why do we have to continue paying them when there is no output being achieved? Nowhere else would you find someone continuing to be paid for not working while they searched for another job.

Smaller Departments were abolished to be able to create larger super Departments – such as the new Department of Industry. Why have several boutique agencies with less than 1000 staff when you can have one larger department of several thousand.

Staff arent sitting around doing nothing and getting paid for it. It is business as usual. They just now work under a different name and ABN.

I thought he’d made a mistake sacking the regional workers and making the horror centrelink phone system take even longer (is that possible).

I first thought he hadn’t realised that a lot of working people have to faff around with centrelink now, rather than just the unemployed. But then i realised it is mostly Mothers who have to do this stuff, so he has probably written it off as a ‘women’s issue’ that doesn’t need resourcing.

I still think it is dumb to get rid of regional workers in four places, and then spend a fortune trying to move a dept to a region, just so you can have regional public servants.

So we’re continuing to pay the public servants to do a job that doesn’t exist?
If they were made redundant, then pay them their redundancy package and be done with it. Why do we have to continue paying them when there is no output being achieved? Nowhere else would you find someone continuing to be paid for not working while they searched for another job.

well, their functions have mostly been moved to other departments, so many of them will be needed it’s just a case of finding a desk for them and making an email address.

Sacking those temps was a bad move. If you’ve ever had the misfortune to have to contact Centrelink recently, you will know why those temps were needed. You need a speaker phone and should expect to be on hold for half an hour to 45 mins minimum.

This is not just about the ‘regular Centrelink customers’ (if I can put it that way). In fact, lots of middle class/well off people have to contact Centrelink – eg students, mothers who have had a baby re the immunisation register/child care rebates, etc.

Centrelink is an absolute nightmare even for well-educated people who are used to negotiating their way around a bureaucracy, and there are some things you simply can’t do on the website.

Not the way for Abbott to win friends.

dkNigs said :

Good news for AusAID, who are one of the highest paid agencies, bad news for Customs, who are paid less than Immigration.

AusAID salaries are actually some way from the highest paid of agencies. Typically they are ranked 30th – 40th out of all 100 or so APS agencies, depending on what level you’re looking at.

But if they really want APS jobs in regional centres, why get rid of a heap of people doing useful work in 4 regional towns, on the centrelink phones.

It takes hours to get thru to centrelink, and anyone who works and has kids has to ring them about childcare now, as they have weirdly lumped childcare in with welfare.

it would make more sense to keep these people on than to move a dept to tamworth or whatever the Bott is planning.

That being said, customs staff in dumping are being moved to immigration.

m00nee said :

sepi said :

but meanwhile they have sacked centrelink/family services phone operators in 4 regional centres – so their commitment to regional ps jobs is pretty thin.

That is such a load of BS. The people “sacked” were all on short term, non ongoing contract. Put in plain English they were employed to do a certain task for a set period of time, no more.

You don’t need to sack someone if their contract is not going to be renewed. That is after all one of the drawbacks of being a contractor.

Dhs got special funding to employ these temps above their normal funding allocation as well…
…and they seem to be naturals at “constructive dismissal” processes (over 1000 in the 6 months leading up to dec last year). They finally offered vrs there, and apparently it was heavily over-subscribed. A lot of people were asking for packages much more than funding was available.

“Front line” staff at dhs are exempt from the cuts (just as defence, customs etc. are )

sepi said :

but meanwhile they have sacked centrelink/family services phone operators in 4 regional centres – so their commitment to regional ps jobs is pretty thin.

That is such a load of BS. The people “sacked” were all on short term, non ongoing contract. Put in plain English they were employed to do a certain task for a set period of time, no more.

You don’t need to sack someone if their contract is not going to be renewed. That is after all one of the drawbacks of being a contractor.

but meanwhile they have sacked centrelink/family services phone operators in 4 regional centres – so their commitment to regional ps jobs is pretty thin.

dkNigs said :

Good news for AusAID, who are one of the highest paid agencies, bad news for Customs, who are paid less than Immigration.

Customs is actually paid higher than Immigration at the APS6 level and above. APS5 is much of a muchness. Customs also has more generous conditions than Immigration.

In any case, ACBPS is remaining a standalone statutory agency and is not being absorbed into DIBP.

spinact said :

Going to be tough meeting the 12,000 by natural attrition target.

Quite easy actually. Once you start moving some departments to Townsville or Karratha that natural attrition is going to kick in real soon.

Madam Cholet3:12 pm 23 Sep 13

When will the position for the person keeping count of the individual jobs removed from the PS be advertised? Is it Canberra based? Could he or she job share with the person who keeps the official spreadsheet of all those in acting/higher duties positions?

Going to be tough meeting the 12,000 by natural attrition target.

Good news for AusAID, who are one of the highest paid agencies, bad news for Customs, who are paid less than Immigration.

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