Chapter 7 – Workforce Management

Conduct and Behaviour

The State Service Management Office has continued to work with agencies to support the State Service Code of Conduct (the Code) and State Service Principles (the Principles).

Agencies are required to take reasonable and appropriate action to address conduct that does not meet the requirements of the Code or the Principles, as set out in Employment Direction No 5: Procedures for the Investigation and Determination of Whether an Employee has Breached the Code of Conduct.

Investigations

Code of Conduct

In 2016-17 there were a total of 44 new investigations into alleged breaches of the Code of which 34 were finalised. Of those finalised 26 breaches were identified, and sanctions imposed included:

• counselling;
• reassignment of duties;
• fine;
• reduction in classification;
• reprimand; and
• termination.

The remaining cases were finalised with either no breach found, or were resolved through other means.

Inability

Six agencies reported investigations into a total of six new cases of alleged inability of an employee to perform their duties, in line with Employment Direction No 6: Procedures for the Investigation and Determination of Whether and Employee is Able to Efficiently and Effectively Perform Their Duties. Of these, four were finalised with only one case finding an employee was not able to perform their duties, as a result the employee was terminated. Of the remaining cases, two were resolved through an employee resigning and the fourth was withdrawn.

Terminations

There are a number of grounds under which an employee’s employment may be terminated, as provided in Section 44(3) of the Act. In 2016-17, nine employees had their employment terminated.

Internal Grievances

Employees are able to raise grievances or matters with their agency that require resolution under the agency’s grievance management process. In 2016-17 ten agencies reported that a total of 114 formal grievances were lodged. The nature of the grievances lodged included employee conflicts, management decisions, harassment, misconduct, and work performance. The following table shows the outcome of formal grievances during this period.

Resolution of these formal grievances was reached using mediation, counselling, reallocation of duties, and a range of other measures.

External Grievances

In 2016-17, a total of 59^[1] grievances were taken to external organisations such as Equal Opportunity Tasmania, the Human Rights Commission, the Integrity Commission, and the Tasmanian Industrial Commission. Of these grievances, 13 were managed internally by the agency before being referred. Matters which were referred to an external organisation included management decisions, discrimination, termination of employment, and matters relating to award conditions.

Agencies continued to review their internal grievance management processes and related policies in 2016-17 and noted ongoing training in key areas such as ethical behaviour, coaching for managers in performance management and managing under performance, and on the grievance process.

Employment Determinations

A number of employment matters were referred for determination using the powers of the Employer under the Act, in line with relevant Employment Directions and Practices, Procedures and Standards. The following table shows the requests made in the 2016-17 reporting period and their status as at 30 June 2017.

In 2016, Employment Direction No 1: Employment in the State Service (ED1) was reissued with amendments that supported the delegation of the Employer’s powers under Section 37(4) of the Act to Heads of Agency, allowing them to determine an employee’s status to be changed from fixed-term to permanent. The following table reports the number of requests approved by Heads of Agencies in 2016-17.

The power to change the employment status of eligible fixed-term teachers in line with the provisions of Employment Direction No 9: Change of Employment Status of Fixed-term Teachers to Permanent (ED9) also relies on the delegated Employer power under Section 37(4) of the Act. The number of teachers who had their employment status changed is therefore also recorded.

[1] This number includes grievances which were directly submitted to the external organisation before being referred back to the agency for resolution.

[2] Current approved Fixed-term and Casual Employment registers are listed on the www.jobs.tas.gov.au website.

Back to: Contents | Previous to: Chapter 6 | Next to: Appendix 1