Public Sector Reforms – an attack on workers’ rights

On Wednesday 27^th February, the Government announced its intention to rewrite the Public Sector Employment Management Act, to reform the Senior Executive Service and abolish the Senior Officer classification. These changes have been announced without any prior consultation with the Association. For Senior Officers, the proposal removes their tenure forcing these employees onto a contract.

The proposal, if implemented, will remove the award entitlements of these employees. The Government will need to legislate to override the award – something that they have done in the past. Our members in Transport for NSW know this from bitter experience.

Using legislation to extinguish award entitlements threatens not just the entitlements of Senior Officers but undermines the whole award system.

The Association has condemned the proposal in the media as a retrograde step.

This is yet another attack that undermines the professionalism, expertise, and independence of the public sector. Executive contracts, since their introduction by the Greiner Government, have led to increasing political interference in the public service. The recommendation on which the proposals are based comes from Kerry Schott’s Commission of Audit Interim Report. It is not based on any evidence about the superiority of the contract system over a tenure based approach.

The abolition of the Senior Officer classification is partly based on a false assumption – that senior staff needs to be involved in the management of a large number of subordinate staff. This proposal will rob the sector of a mechanism for rewarding and retaining technical expertise.

The Government’s agenda to further undermine the job security of all public sector workers is evident in these reforms. The proposal foreshadows plans to redraft the Public Sector Employment and Management Act 2002 to remove the concept of permanent “officer” holding a defined position.

The Association has written to the Public Service Commissioner expressing our disappointment at the lack of consultation. We have also arranged an urgent meeting with the Commissioner.

All SES and Senior Officer members of the PSA are invited to attend a meeting on Thursday 14^th March at 4pm at PSA House, 160 Clarence St, Sydney. The meeting will discuss the Union’s response to this proposal. Members who can’t attend and wish to provide input can contact Anthony D’Adam on (02) 9220 0950 or by email: .

As more details become available in relation to the wider reforms, I will provide further advice to members.

Anne Gardiner

General Secretary

Public Service Association

PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT REFORMED TO FOCUS ON THE FRONTLINE

Download PDF: PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT REFORMED TO FOCUS ON THE FRONTLINE

Barry O’Farrell MP
Premier of NSW
Minister for Western Sydney
MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday 27 February 2013
PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT REFORMED TO FOCUS ON THE FRONTLINE
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell today announced reform of public sector senior and middle management to better focus government resources on the frontline and improved services for communities across the state.
“These reforms will create a more professional public service, operating along best-practice private and government sector lines, that is better able to meet the needs of families across NSW,” Mr O’Farrell said.
“We want an innovative, professional and accountable public service which encourages and rewards performance and delivers the best possible frontline services for local communities,” he said.
“The NSW Government wants to reward talent, not time, in the public service.”
The NSW Public Service Commissioner has recommended significant reforms that build on the recommendations of the report of the Commission of Audit.
Cabinet has accepted the recommendations for reform including:

rationalising the executive structure, reducing multiple layers of management;
tightening up procedures to quickly and fairly deal with poor executive performance; and,
streamlining legislation covering government executives in different agencies into a single act, while enabling organisations like the NSW Police Force, the Teaching Service and Local Health Districts to have independent arrangements aligned with the new reforms.

Under existing legislation, first written in 1902, the NSW public service operates two types of executive employment with some executives on 5 year contracts (Senior Executive Service), and others on awards (Senior Officers).
Under the reforms there will be a single system, with award and contract-based executives shifting to ongoing contracts with built-in rigorous merit recruitment and performance management provisions.
Executives will be appointed to a band – not a position – and a role within the band.
Research undertaken by the Public Service Commission has revealed a dramatic increase in the number of Senior Officers with the number increasing fivefold since from 280 in 1999 to more than 1,600 in 2012.
There are also another 640 ‘senior officer equivalents’ in other agencies that will be covered by these reforms.
The reforms will dramatically reduce executive management layers, improve executive accountability and help with better service delivery across the State.
In the NSW Public Sector approximately 16 per cent of executive level staff do not manage any people and, of the remaining who do, around 30 per cent only manage one to three people.
Under best practice in the private and government sector, a typical manager would oversight more than six people.
This reform was recommended by the Schott Report (Interim Report on Public Sector Management, January 2012):
‘The [Audit] Commission recommends the PSC should present reform proposals to the Government regarding the executive structure of the NSW public service (SES, SO and other executives) to:
. establish a separate structure for Directors General
. create a new executive structure combining the SES and the Senior Officer classification, and as appropriate, other executive grouping.’

MEDIA: Cameron Hamilton or Mark Tobin 9228 5239

Public Sector Reform

Reforming the public sector to deliver improved services to the NSW community

Arising from the Government’s support of the Commission of Audit’s recommendations, the Premier requested the Public Service Commissioner to review the NSW public sector, starting with the executive structure, and develop reform proposals to improve public sector management. There are two parts to these reforms: reform of the executive structure and reforms which will apply to the entire government sector.

The executive structure reforms involve consolidating the Senior Executive Service, Senior Officers and other executives into a single group and establishing a separate structure for cluster Director Generals. The broader government sector reforms involve introducing more contemporary employment management practices.

Please see the information booklet and video provided along with the media release (PDF 205KB) and a sector reform question and answer (PDF 400.1KB) document.

More information will be made available here as the project develops over the coming months.

Public Sector Reform 2013 Brochure 26 Feb 2012 – FINAL

NSW Government Public Sector Reform Policy

Public Sector Reform

Reforming the public sector to deliver improved services to the NSW community

Please see the information booklet and video provided along with the media release (PDF 205KB) and a sector reform question and answer (PDF 400.1KB) document.

More information will be made available here as the project develops over the coming months.

Public Sector Reform 2013 Brochure 26 Feb 2012 – FINAL

CORRECTIVE SERVICES CUTS WILL PUT DUBBO COMMUNITY AT RISK

12 Corrective Services jobs are to be cut in Dubbo when the Community Compliance and Monitoring Group (CCMG) office closes as part of a State-wide restructure by Corrective Services NSW. According to the Western Plains Community Union Alliance the job cuts will mean
high-risk offenders will no longer be supervised and monitored after business hours and on weekends. The CCMG currently monitors extreme high-risk offenders on Parole Orders and Good Behaviour Bonds such as murderers, sex offenders, offenders with links to Outlaw Motor Cycle Gangs (OMCG), offenders subject to electronic monitoring, offenders on Home Detention Orders as well as Intensive Corrections Orders.
Officers conduct unannounced home visits both during and after business hours (including weekends and public holidays), and urine drug tests and alcohol breath testing to ensure offenders comply with the conditions of their Orders.

Read the full story here

Minimum Standards for Casual Public Sector Workers Needed

MEDIA RELEASE Friday, 8 February 2013

Report confirms O’Farrell Government should introduce minimum standards for casual public sector workers

The O’Farrell Government should look to introduce minimum standards for public sector workers in
NSW, in line with the recommendations of a new report showing inequality is growing in the
workforce between full-time workers and insecure, “peripheral” casual workers.

“Casual workers suffer from a whole range of pressures and stresses that permanent workers don’t,
because they don’t have access to basic conditions we have traditionally taken for granted in this
state,” Unions NSW Secretary Mark Lennon said.

“Having no access to leave, while suffering from low pay and insecurity about future work, means
that casual workers are often battling under working conditions that are very difficult to endure.

“Employers shouldn’t be given carte blanche to use casualisation as a means of generating profits
at the expense of quality of life for ordinary working people. That’s simply not a trade-off that
we should be prepared to accept.”

Mr Lennon said it was important for the O’Farrell Government to introduce minimum standards for
public sector casual workers.

“As the biggest employer in the state, the NSW Government needs to be setting a far better
example,” Mr Lennon said.

“In recent years we have seen an increase in casual positions in the NSW public sector. This should
be avoided wherever possible, but when it does happen we should see minimum standards in place.

“If the State Government is treating working people in NSW this way, how can it expect private
companies to do any better?”

Mark Lennon 0427 231 800 (Further info: Anil Lambert 0416 426 722)

Download Media Release

Member Support Centre 1800 772 679

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Public Sector Reforms – an attack on workers’ rights

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PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT REFORMED TO FOCUS ON THE FRONTLINE

Public Sector Reform

Reforming the public sector to deliver improved services to the NSW community

Recent News

NSW Government Public Sector Reform Policy

Public Sector Reform

Reforming the public sector to deliver improved services to the NSW community

Recent News

CORRECTIVE SERVICES CUTS WILL PUT DUBBO COMMUNITY AT RISK

Recent News

Minimum Standards for Casual Public Sector Workers Needed

Report confirms O’Farrell Government should introduce minimum standards for casual public sector workers

Recent News

NSW Commission of Audit Interim Report – Public Sector Management (Schott Report)

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