Performance pay takes a tumble at ANTA

By Phil Shannon

CANBERRA -- The practice of paying performance bonuses rather than wage rises in the Australian Public Service was dealt a small but significant blow recently. Staff in the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), the federal government's vocational education and training body, voted in July to dump performance pay bonuses.

During the development of ANTA's new certified agreement, a separate vote was held on whether to retain ANTA's team and individual performance pay system. Only two of more than 100 staff in ANTA voted to keep any type of performance pay bonus.

Among the reasons for this overwhelming rejection were that staff found that performance pay creates a competitive working culture and is counterproductive to teamwork. It simply wasn't worth the hassle. Money that would have been spent on bonuses has now gone towards a general wage rise and into staff development.

This result will strengthen the opposition by Community and Public Sector Union members to unfair and divisive bonuses replacing wage rises in a number of major commonwealth agencies.

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