Public service facing 'attraction and retention crisis'
The Federal government is being urged to improve pay and conditions for the Australian Public Service (APS) as Services Australia grapples with a skills shortage.
Centrelink, a Services Australia master programme of the Australian government, is currently operating 500 staff below the level of staff they are funded to have and is struggling to vacancies, as heard by Senate estimates.
"Phone calls are going unanswered in Services Australia because the APS is facing an attraction and retention crisis, while it also works to recover from a decade of staffing cuts," said Matthew Harrison, deputy national president of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).
The crisis is not only leaving Australians unable to access public services but is also resulting to existing staff being overworked and burning out, added Harrison.
The union attributed the problem to the growth of private sector wages and conditions outpacing the public sector's.
Invest as a model employer
To address the problem, the government needs to invest in re-establishing itself as a model employer.
"In order to attract and then retain staff, Services Australia needs to be a better place to work," Harrison said in a media release. "Its employees need a pay increase that reflects rising cost of living pressures, conditions must be improved, those on labour hire agreements need to be transferred into permanent and ongoing secure jobs, and there needs to be a boost in overall staffing numbers."
"Failure to do this will see the same problems surface time and time again."
Previously, the Australian government was urged to provide "portable" leave entitlements to National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) workers amid high attrition rates within the workforce.
