Almost two thirds of the New South Wales public servants on the so-called unattached list have accepted an incentive payment to leave the public service.

 

Of the 365 employees who received an incentive offer, 223 accepted and have left the public service. A further 54 have taken up permanent positions or have begun a trial for a permanent position.

 

The ‘unattached list’ included public servants who had remained on the payroll for more than five years without a permanent job.

 

Earlier this year the NSW Government announced it would scrap the no forced redundancies policy for the public service.

 

Excess employees had a deadline of 1 August to accept a one-off payment of $10,000, to take a fresh voluntary redundancy offer to encourage them to either find a job or leave the public service immediately.

 

88 people declined the offer and will now receive a new, reduced voluntary redundancy offer with no incentive payment.

 

They must either find a permanent role or accept the offer and leave the public service within three months or face forced redundancy.

 

Under the new arrangements, the period for retaining excess public servants has been reduced from 12 months to 3 months.

 

Major cuts to the NSW public service have been predicted as part of the Liberal Government's first budget on September 6, with one third of jobs in NSW Health's head office thought to be at risk, and a 25% budget reduction for the Department of Primary Industries expected to impact on jobs.