Liberal Member for Penrith Stuart Ayres supports recent moves by the NSW Government to scrap Labor’s ‘no forced-redundancies’ policy, saving NSW taxpayers $16 million per year.
\”Under the previous government a number of employees whose roles were surplus to the government’s needs were kept on the payroll, costing the taxpayer millions for very little gain.\” Mr Ayres said.
\”The system merely allowed these excess public servants to drift in limbo indefinitely, with no incentives to find another job.
\”The measured approach taken by the NSW Government will help to turn around our clunkypublic serviceand get our state on track to be the service provider it once was.\”
After meeting with cabinet, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell announced the governmentis committed to the following steps:
- End Labor’s ‘no forced redundancies’ policy in the NSW public service;
- Shorten the period for retaining excess employees from 12 months to 3 months;
- Reduce severance payments for public servants who reject an initial offer for voluntary redundancy; and,
- Offer a one-off incentive payment of $10,000 for current excess employees to accept a new voluntary redundancy offer – so they exit the public service within a month.
“We are going to bring the NSW public service into line with other businesses – and that means providing a redundancy system which is fair but sensible,” Mr O’Farrell said.
