ATO staff refuse to work an extra 9 minutes per day, which has many reaching for the violins.
The Australian Taxation Office has a gruelling work schedule that sees their current standard hours as 8:30am to 12:30pm and 1:30pm to 4:51pm. If an employee’s hours exceed 7 hours and 21 minutes, they can elect to add the extra time to their flex.
When the department, who have one of the shortest working weeks in government, was asked to work an extra nine minute a day to boost productivity, the backlash was so fierce that the proposal was ultimately dropped.
The Australian Taxation Office has admitted its working hours do not meet community expectations and are inefficient, and increasing their working day to 7 hours and 30 minutes would be more in line with community expectations.
An inability to agree on a new enterprise agreement, which includes a clause to increase the expected working day, means ATO staff have not received a pay rise since the existing one expired in June 2014 – almost three years ago.
Source: ABC
However, the Community and Public Sector Union say the issues for the ATO staff went much deeper than a measly 9 minutes a day.
In 2015, the ATO cut 4400 jobs over 19 months.
“The idea that Tax Office staff head home en masse at 4.51pm is ludicrous. Our members are working longer hours than ever, including unpaid overtime, because of over 4000 jobs that have been slashed from the ATO in recent years,” said CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood
“This was never the only issue for our members, though they were understandably upset at a cut to their hourly pay rate via changing working hours at the same time as they were being told to accept a measly pay offer at that stage of 0.8 per cent a year.
“What’s inefficient and out of step with community expectations is the Turnbull Government cutting thousands of jobs from the agency that polices multinational tax avoidance and demanding the staff who are left cover for that hole while spending three years pursuing a long list of cuts to their rights while sticking them on a wage freeze.”
