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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-05-13 Daily Xml
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Public Sector Employees

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:47): My question is to the Treasurer. What leave and other assistance arrangements has the government provided to the public sector during this COVID-19 crisis?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:48): I thank the member for his question. I think it is testimony to the very warm regard that I and other government members hold towards the hardworking members of the Public Service to indicate that the government has demonstrated that through very generous arrangements for public servants who have been endeavouring to continue to undertake their activities during the global pandemic. A significant number of government workers, at least certainly through the first couple of months, have been able to work from home.

Government departments and agencies have been provided with various resources to assist VPN or other software, such as Outlook, Web Access, SharePoint, Office 365 and Microsoft Teams, in many cases allowing them to work from home without a VPN. I did hear an example of where one particular department even allowed some employees to take home, I suspect, their ergonomically designed chairs because of concerns about work health and safety, sitting in non-ergonomically designed chairs for long periods of time working from a home office perhaps not best suited to long hours working at a computer terminal or desk.

Certainly, chief executives in the main and senior public servants have been very generous in terms of trying to assist those workers who need to or wanted to work from home during the period. In the last week we have seen significant numbers of public servants returning to office work, as we have seen in other office buildings throughout the nation as well.

In addition to that, the government, through the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment, issued Determination 3.1: Employment Conditions. In that, approval was given for extra access of 15 days of special leave with pay for COVID-19 related absences. This was an additional provision provided by taxpayers to hardworking public servants, which they were able to benefit from, which in many, many cases was not available to hardworking private sector workers working for organisations, companies and businesses.

In addition to the 15-day special leave with pay for COVID-19 related absences, there was also, at the discretion of the chief executive of each agency, the potential to access additional special leave with pay. In line with the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment's appropriate determination, it was possible in certain circumstances for additional access to special leave with pay.

There were a range of other benefits that we provided to our hardworking members of the Public Service. For example, we announced that eligible public servants would be able to access a payment in lieu of recreation leave and long service leave as part of our first stimulus package. This meant, for example, if a public servant who continued to have paid employment but nevertheless had a partner or a spouse who had lost their job as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore the family income had dropped significantly because previously they had been a two-income family with a mortgage, perhaps, that had been geared towards two incomes and all of a sudden they became a one income family, the Public Service member of that household was able to access payment in lieu of recreation leave and long service leave to assist with the ongoing payment of bills that that family household might have been confronted with.

There were a range of other benefits the government provided its hardworking members of the Public Service. I am sure all members of this chamber, not just government members, would warmly endorse the generous nature that taxpayers, through its elected government, have provided to its hardworking members of the Public Service in terms of providing support to work their way through the challenges of the global pandemic.

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