Public sector payout change questioned
The Tasmanian Government says it will implement all seven recommendations from a State Service Management Office examination of redundancy payments.
The inquiry found flaws in the process, but no evidence of impropriety.
It was prompted by allegations from the Opposition about widespread rorting.
The changes see a new requirement imposed for public servants to serve at least six months in a position before they are eligible for a redundancy.
The audit of ten per cent of redundancy payments found at least seven cases of employees getting a redundancy payout less than six weeks after transferring to a position that was slated for axing.
Community and Public Sector Union secretary Tom Lynch says he is not convinced there is anything wrong with that.
“There has always been a situation where if somebody whose position was made redundant didn't want to accept a redundancy, but somebody in a similar position or at a similar level was keen on a redundancy but their position was required, that the two people could swap,” he told the ABC.
The union spokesperson said the Government review failed to find information that would calm concerns about the unfairness of the payouts.
He said the review made no claims about a gender bias in the amounts being offered, or whether there was a bias against lower-paid workers.
Voluntary redundancies and early retirement incentives were used to cut more than 821 Tasmanian Government positions last financial year.
But the union is concerned that the retirement incentives work to encourage older, higher-paid workers to retire, letting younger, cheaper workers replace them.
“It's been used as a cheap redundancy program," Mr Lynch said.
“The messages agencies got from the Government was to ignore the processes and just to get people out the door as quickly as possible.”
The auditor-general is conducting a separate investigation into the public service redundancy program.