New report threatens public sector jobs

By Melanie Sjoberg

ADELAIDE — The myth, peddled by the establishment press and politicians, that the public service is over regulated, an easy job for life and a haven for incompetent workers, is being pushed here in a new government report filtering through the public service.

The Hunn report, which was quietly slipped into an enterprise bargaining centre meeting of the Department of Premier and Cabinet in early March, recommends the introduction of individual contracts and dropping the concept of equal pay for work of equal value

The Public Service Association has condemned the report, prepared by consultants KPMG and Ken Baxter, the architect of the New Zealand and Victorian public sector shake ups. The PSA is seeking a meeting with Premier Olsen.

The report says the state public service needs modernising and likens it to the Victorian public sector before its "reform". It claims that incompetent staff are difficult to remove and that it is virtually impossible to employ people on contracts. It also claims that management is not adequately monitored or accountable.

It also charges that there is a burgeoning "grievance industry", with employees seeking redress for discrimination in employment through any of six forums. While there are a number of forums for employees to take their grievances, usually there is only one avenue for a particular claim. The suggestion that workers waste time and money shopping around the appeal process is nonsense.

The main recommendations of the Hunn report are: an extension of individual contracts across the public service; a two-tiered enterprise bargaining system; the complete removal of the classification system, which identifies skill levels for pay rates; the devolution of personnel management; and the rationalisation of the grievance industry.

It also recommends removing the equal employment opportunity provisions and suggests the public sector should adjust to a notion of "diversity to reflect the community".

From GLW issue 312