The Canberra Times has a story that will send a shiver down the spine of the nation’s pen-pushers:
The federal government has not ruled out a spill-and-fill at the Department of Finance.
The department is in the process of culling 250 staff, almost 10 per cent of its workforce, before July 2015.
In Parliament on Monday evening, Fraser MP and shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh asked the government whether it would be forcing staff at Finance to reapply for their own jobs.
Michael McCormack, parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Finance, could not answer either way.
“I am not aware – and this is in response to his previous question – of any plans to do a spill-and-fill, but difficult times do call for hard decisions,” Mr McCormack said.
The entire Australian Public Service is in a ‘bargaining period’ under the Fair Work Act, which would make industrial action legitimate. During a bargaining period is an ideal time to ‘spill and fill’ – it would be rapid, very traumatic and painful for those involved – and no doubt likely to involve some industrial/political consequences, but if it led fairly directly to a reduced public sector size; scope to move positions out of the ACT and shunted functions back to states then why not for these rather inflexible chaps?
