APS Hierarchy and
Classification Review

Submission by the Community and Public
Sector Union (PSU Group)

June 2021

Authorised & printed by Melissa Donnelly, Community and Public Sector Union (PSU Group) 7/191–199 Thomas St, Haymarket, NSW, 2000.
CPSU SUBMISSION

Introduction
1. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) welcomes the opportunity to make
a submission to the APS Hierarchy and Classification Review (Review). The CPSU
represents employees across the entire Australian Public Service (APS), spanning a
broad range of professions and occupational groupings.
2. To contribute to the Review, the CPSU has conducted meetings of members across
its full APS membership. The union has also conducted specific sessions with
members drawn from:
Service delivery functions;
Digital and Information Technology;
Legal;
Science; and
Graduates and former graduates.
This submission draws on feedback from that membership engagement.
3. The CPSU notes the complexity of the task of reviewing the APS classification
system. The APS is a diverse workforce undertaking a wide variety of functions to
serve the Australian community.
4. The Review presents an opportunity to examine and address challenges that exist
in the current classification system. It also presents an opportunity to embed
improvements adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the APS adapt
quickly to respond to the crisis.

Summary
5. The following is a summary of the key themes of the CPSU submission.
Drawing on the lessons of COVID-19. The Review presents an opportunity to
embed positive changes in the APS that saw APS capability effectively deployed
during the crisis.
Consistency. The APS classification system should be sufficiently rigorous to
accurately reflect work value. All too often, a lack of rigor in work level standards
(WLS) in the APS leads to the misclassification of roles and inequity in outcomes.
Underclassification of roles. There is a historical tendency to undervalue and
underclassify service delivery roles, and roles more likely to be performed by
women, First Nations employees, and people with a disability. This undervaluing
of work is exacerbated by the pay gaps that exist between APS agencies. This
must be addressed.

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Reducing layers of hierarchy in higher levels. Efforts to free up decision-making
should be focused at the higher levels where bottlenecks are more likely to
exist. This is partly a function of distortions in classification which stem from
the inadequacy of measures to address labour market shortage in particular
geographical areas and for particular occupational groupings. Instead of
addressing these issues, there has been a tendency in the APS to push more
complex work down to lower-level roles, resulting in a continuation of the trend
to undervalue and underpay feminised work.
The value of broadbanding. Broadbanding should be more widely utilised to
accurately reflect the value of work performed, and as a measure to attract and
retain employees.
Labour market shortage and skills in demand. There must be mechanisms to
attract and retain skills and expertise that are in high demand. Without such
measures, there is a tendency to adopt ad hoc and ineffective approaches,
including misclassifying roles when they are advertised, which distorts the
classification system.
A suite of mechanisms to attract and retain employees should be deployed as
part of workforce planning in the APS. These measures should:
» Maintain the integrity of the classification system and not compromise work
value;
» Be transparent and fair;
» Not entrench tendencies to undervalue and underclassify work more likely to
be performed by women, First Nations employees, or people with a disability.
» Apply to groups within occupations and disciplines, not individuals;
» Be supported by remuneration and conditions delivered through genuine
enterprise bargaining that restores the former competitive advantage of the
APS to innovate on conditions;
» Include greater flexibility in the location of work so that for skills in high
demand, applicants can perform their work from locations across Australia.
» Be capable of applying to emerging skill shortages and demands that are not
currently foreseeable.
APS professionals. APS capability will require the APS to support its professional
employees. Specific recommendations are made in respect of APS lawyers, ICT/
Digital professionals, graduates and scientists, that aim to support attraction and
retention, recognition of professional skills, and career development.

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The lessons of COVID-19

Surge capacity and mobility
6. During COVID-19 the APS was able to deploy employees within and across agencies,
and to do so quickly. Administered by the APS Workforce Management Taskforce,
employees were largely deployed to Services Australia to assist with Job Seeker
payments, performing tasks beyond their usual duties. Later, APS employees were
deployed to assist with efforts to help contain outbreaks in Victoria.
7. The CPSU supported the decision to make this initiative voluntary, and the strength
of the response from the workforce (with 1732 employees from 37 agencies
deployed to Services Australia) shows this was the right approach.
8. Mobility is critical to the ability of the APS to respond in a crisis. Mobility should be
supported by consistency across the APS in the correct classification of roles, and
consistency in pay and core conditions. There are over 100 industrial instruments
covering APS employees, with unique rates of pay for work classified at the same
level. This represents an unnecessary barrier to mobility and the ability of the APS
to deploy a surge workforce to meet a crisis. The Independent Review of the APS
recommended a move towards common pay scales to support mobility1, however
this recommendation has not been adopted.
9. Services Australia was faced with the challenge of supporting a dramatic increase in
Australians seeking income support due to the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.
In large part, the surge workforce enabled the APS to respond to that need.
However, secondees found themselves undertaking work for Services Australia other
than Job Seeker enquiries and claims. This work involved employees being exposed
to customers facing very complex issues, in often very difficult circumstances, such
as family and domestic violence and homelessness. This work requires significant
training and support and far exceeded the secondees’ expectations of the work they
volunteered to assist with.
10. The redeployment of APS employees to service delivery roles shines a light on the
often very difficult and challenging nature of this work, and the need for adequate
staffing, training, and support for workers undertaking service delivery roles. The
complexity of service delivery work is explored further in the next section of the
CPSU’s submission.

1 Our Public Service, Our Future: Independent Review of the APS, Commonwealth of Australia, 2019, p. 258

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Working from home
11. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid change in working arrangements, and
across the Australian workforce and the APS, employees worked from home on a
previously unimagined scale. Once the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC)
issued Circular 2020/3: COVID-19 – Remote working and evolving work arrangements,
agencies moved fairly swiftly to facilitate working from home arrangements,
such that approximately 64% of the APS workforce eventually ended up working
from home. This enabled the APS to continue to operate effectively and meet the
challenges of the pandemic for the Australian community.
12. In large part, APS agencies have been moving to consolidate changes in work
practices and have worked with employees and their union to put in place new
policies that support continued access to working from home arrangements. There
are notable exceptions, including the Department of Social Service (DSS), which
has taken a decision not to support employees working from home. The risk for
employers that do not adapt to changing employee expectations is that they
develop a reputation for inflexibility, devaluing the conditions package on offer to
employees.
13. The continued availability of flexible working arrangements, access to working from
home, and the ability to perform roles from a wider range of locations is important
for attraction and retention of skilled employees. The adoption of strategies to
make roles available in a wider range of locations expands the pool of skilled
employees available to the APS, potentially easing labour market difficulties. This is
particularly important where the APS has difficulty competing for skilled employees
in tight labour markets, for example digital and data employees.
14. Employees who are able to perform their work from any location in Australia may
be more likely to accept and remain in an APS role, even if the private sector is able
to offer higher rates of pay. With the widespread adoption of working from home
arrangements during the COVID pandemic, the ability to work from any location is
more likely to become an expectation of high performing, highly-skilled employees.

Recommendations
There needs to be adequate training and clear lines of communications for
employees who volunteer to be part of a surge workforce. (CPSU Recommendation 1)
Mobility in the APS should be supported by the capacity for APS employees to
bargain collectively for a common set of core conditions and pay, with agency-
specific issues bargained at the agency level, similar to the model in the ACT
jurisdiction. (CPSU Recommendation 2)
Working from home should continue to be widely available to support APS
capability, help with the attraction and retention of employees, and to open
up opportunities to advertise roles from a broader range of locations. (CPSU
Recommendation 3)

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Valuing service delivery work

Historical undervaluation of service delivery work
15. APS employees in service delivery roles in Services Australia, the Australian
Taxation Office (ATO), and other agencies, are the public’s point of contact with the
APS. They are the employees that are there for citizens at life’s most challenging
stages: pandemics, bushfires, the birth of children, the loss of employment and
many other life events and circumstances. Despite its importance, this customer-
facing work has been historically undervalued, a trend which continues today. These
roles are more likely to be performed by women, people with disabilities, and First
Nations employees (note the Home Affairs Border Monitoring Officers in the Torres
Strait case study on page 12).
16. The tendency to underclassify service delivery work reflects the undervaluing
of feminised work across the Australian labour market and differences in labour
market power of some groups of employees, and is compounded and entrenched by
WLS which are imprecise and prone to misapplication.
17. This tendency continues at the same time that an increasing proportion of service
delivery work has become more complex. CPSU members report increasing
requirements to perform complex work in front-of-house roles, such as managed
assessments, backdating, partnerships, complex assessments, and making referrals
(which would usually be done by social workers). With automation, simple or
straightforward claims tend to be done online. An increasing proportion of front-
of-house and telephony work involves contact with very vulnerable Australians
who present with complex needs. This adds to the complexity of the work that is
undertaken by service delivery employees.

Tendency to push increasingly complex work down to
lower-level employees
18. APSC guidance has aimed to reduce organisational layers and ensure decision-
making is made at the lowest possible level2. This concept is also incorporated into
this Review’s Terms of Reference3. Unfortunately, this objective has been misdirected
at lower-level APS employees who already undertake very complex work at the
lower levels. It has been used to push complex work down to lower-level staff,
without appropriate remuneration.
19. For example, Services Australia recently conducted a trial to move urgent payment
assessments from APS4 to APS3 level, citing the Independent Review of the Australian
Public Service and this current Review as justification to “reduce hierarchy” and

2 The APS Framework for Optimal Management Structures, Australian Public Service Commission, 2014, p. 4
3 Review of APS Hierarchy and Classifications – Terms of Reference, 18 March 2021, www. apsc.gov.au, accessed 25 May 2021

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“promote a culture of delegations and decision-making at the lowest level possible.”
This is explored further in the case study below.

Case study: Services Australia APS 3 Indigenous Urgent
Payment Assessment and Approval
OVERVIEW

Services Australia recently completed a 3-month trial requiring approximately 55 APS Level 3
Service Officers to undertake urgent payment assessments for Indigenous clients including in
Bunbury, Bateman’s Bay, Cairns and Port Macquarie Smart Centres. Indigenous urgent payments are
normally undertaken by APS Level 4 Service Officers or above, consistent with work value, and this
change reflects a downgrading or declassification of duties. Many Service Officers on the Indigenous
Services Line identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

COMPLEXITY OF THE WORK

An urgent payment is an early or advance payment of a recipient’s entitlement (pension, allowance,
benefit) which is made because the recipient is in severe financial hardship due to unforeseen
and exceptional, or extraordinary circumstances. An urgent payment results in a lower subsequent
payment on the recipient’s usual payment delivery day. As such, there are consequences to the
recipient in granting a payment.

A person can receive two urgent payments in a 12-month period which are accessible through
online and automated phone service channels. These payments do not require any assessment or
approval process. For third and subsequent urgent payments, a suitably qualified Service Officer
must verify that the client is in severe financial hardship due to extraordinary or, exceptional and
unforeseen circumstances, including in respect of expenses associated with a funeral, before an
urgent payment is made. Currently the decision to grant or deny urgent payments are undertaken by
an APS Level 4 Service Officer or above per the Services Australia Operational Blueprint.

In making a decision for urgent payments, the APS 4 Service Officer must determine:

1. Whether alternative assistance will alleviate the hardship; AND

2. Whether an urgent payment should be made.

The Indigenous Services urgent payments assessment and approval entails decision making of
a moderate complexity, not a simple or straightforward one, consistent with work value of an
APS 4 classification. The work requires knowledge of alternative assistance to alleviate hardship,
verification of customer’s financial position, verification of unforeseen and exceptional, or
extraordinary circumstances, application of discretion in assessing urgent payment, negotiating
the amount to be paid and potential repercussions of the advance. The work necessarily entails
engagement with customers that are often emotionally distressed, potentially aggressive and/or
vulnerable.

ASSESSMENT AGAINST WORK LEVEL STANDARDS

Services Australia utilises the APS Work Level Standards and the APSC’s Role Evaluation Tool.
Services Australia completed a role evaluation prior to the commencement of the trial. The
evaluation tool considers a range of evaluation factors (such as knowledge, accountability, decision-
making, guidance, problem-solving, negotiation and cooperation etc) and scores the role with an
approved classification level.
An APS Level 3 position correlates to a total score of 46 – 63 and an APS Level 4 position correlates
to a total score of 64 -81. Services Australia’s preliminary assessment of the role for the purposes of
the trial returned a total score of 62. Under the evaluation tool, borderline roles are required to be
verified for accuracy. This did not take place.

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20. The Services Australia Indigenous Urgent Payment Trial example is not isolated,
rather it reflects a theme in service delivery that returns again and again. For
example, in Services Australia:
Employees report examples of APS6 office manager roles being declassified to
APS5 level, despite the increasing complexity of the role;
In the Child Support stream, non-customer-based processing work, traditionally
performed at APS4 level, has been moved to APS2 employees;
In Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card processing, APS3s are now
performing technical support, work traditionally undertaken by APS4s.

Case study - Underclassification of ATO telephony work
In ATO Debt Assist, APS3 employees have been undertaking work that is commensurate with APS4
work undertaken at Services Australia. That currently involves undertaking hardship calls, release
calls, re-engagement calls and highly technical work like Insolvency and Release. Those calls can be
highly charged, aggressive, emotional and sometimes suicidal.

“We should not be expected to deal with these calls every day but we are. We are almost semi quasi
counsellors to these clients – well beyond our training and experience.” APS3 ATO employee.

APS2s also perform some of that work. APS2s undertaking complex, technical insolvency work,
are not always provided with adequate training, and sometimes the work needs to be re-worked,
creating reverse workflow for the APS3s. This is time-consuming for APS3 employees. Only now are
APS4s are being trained in Insolvency work, as there has previously been a lack of trained staff to
escalate to.

There should be a service delivery broadband in the ATO to adequately recognise work value
undertaken by service delivery employees.

21. There are many other examples, the cumulative effect of which is a significant,
ongoing trend to underclassify service delivery work. The trend is also evident in:
The difficulty experienced by APS3 Medicare employees progressing through
the APS3-4 broadband upon the creation of the Department of Human Services
(explored at par. 38);
Reports that in the DSS Community Grants Hub state network, when positions
have becomes vacant in recent years, they are often advertised at a lower
classification level, limiting advancement opportunities for remaining employees;
Debt Insolvency work in the ATO, which was previously performed by APS4
employees, being undertaken by APS2 casuals acting on higher duties at APS3
level, with significantly less training and support than is required to perform the
work well;
The increasing tendency to engage APS casuals at APS2 and APS3 levels; and
The use of labour hire employees who hold APS4 delegations but are paid at
rates lower than the base level for an APS3, inclusive of loading.
22. The result is that the lowest paid employees in the APS are required to perform
more and more complex work, without being adequately remunerated for it.

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Underclassification and insecure work
23. APSC data reveals that APS4 employees, who perform core service delivery work
for the Commonwealth, are a decreasing proportion of the APS workforce4. At the
same time, casual employees, increasingly relied on by service delivery agencies,
tend to be engaged at the APS2 and APS3 level. These cohorts are not reflected in
the APS Hierarchy and Classification Review Discussion Paper, however we know that
in Services Australia, as at 31 December 2020, 2953 employees were engaged as
casuals, representing 9.6% of the workforce, and in the ATO, 2693 employees are
casual, representing 12.9% of the workforce5.
24. The discussion paper notes that that the most common classification in the APS
is now APS6 and there are minimal employees at the APS 1-3 levels. Although
there has been a general increase in average APS level over time, reflecting the
automation of basic tasks and increasing complexity of the work performed by the
APS, the data relied on by the APSC only includes ongoing employees and does not
tell the full story. The table below includes casual employees and paints a different
picture.

Chart 1: Ongoing and non-ongoing employees as a proportion of the APS workforce
Employees by classification level - 30 June 2020
35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
Trainee Graduate APS1 APS2 APS3 APS4 APS5 APS6 EL1 EL2 SES1 SES2 SES3

Ongoing Non-ongoing

Source: APS Employment tables – 30 June 2020

25. Additionally, there is no central tracking of the use of labour hire employees by APS
agencies, and the classification and remuneration of work performed by labour hire
staff.
26. For example in Services Australia, labour hire workers are given delegations at
the APS4 level, yet they do not receive the same remuneration and conditions of
an APS4 level employee. Instead their pay varies by provider and by location, with
examples of pay rates well below the bottom rate payable for APS3s under the

4 APS Hierarchy and Classification Review Discussion Paper, 7 May 2021, Figure 1
5 APS Employment Database, 31 December 2020

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enterprise agreement, even with casual loading included. This not only undermines
the classification standards in the APS but it is also detrimental to the career
progression of APS employees. For example, it has been reported that Service
Australia performed a bulk recruitment round for APS3 ongoing employees while
engaging labour hire employees with the APS4 delegation.
27. APS employees in service delivery report that increasing reliance on labour hire
and insecure employees sees double-handling, with work being redone and queries
escalated to ongoing staff where temporary employees do not have sufficient
training or experience.
28. What these trends represent is an increasing reliance on insecure workers engaged
at APS2 and APS3 level, and a decline in the APS4 cohort as a proportion of ongoing
employees in the APS, despite the increasing complexity of service delivery work.

What needs to happen?
29. The CPSU position is that attempts to reduce hierarchy and free up decision-making
should be focused on achieving this aim with more senior levels within the APS,
which has experienced growth as a proportion of the overall APS workforce in
recent decades6.
30. At the same time, the CPSU recommends that measures be adopted to address
and reverse the tendency to underclassify service delivery work. This is a matter of
fairness and equity and also an important step that the APS can and should take to
address the gender pay gap.

Recommendations
APS2 and APS3 service delivery roles should be reviewed, with underclassification
addressed through broadbanding arrangements. (CPSU Recommendation 4)
In service delivery areas, agencies should remove impediments to progression
through broadbands, so that work value of the work performed can be accurately
reflected in employees’ classification and remuneration. This will help correct the
undervaluation of service delivery work. (CPSU Recommendation 5)
The APS Work Level Standards as they apply to service delivery work should be
reviewed, to provide more detailed guidance and clearer language to delineate
work value at each classification level (CPSU Recommendation 6)

6 APS Hierarchy and Classification Review Discussion Paper, 7 May 2021, Figure 1

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The work level standards, inconsistencies,
and underclassification
31. The APS Work Level Standards are written in general language, so that they are
applicable across a diverse workforce. The value of this approach is commonality
across the Service, which supports mobility, careers that span multiple agencies, and
the objective of “One APS”. However, broad language is prone to misapplication,
which contributes to tendencies to push more complex service delivery work down
to the lower APS levels (as noted in a number of examples at par. 20-21), and the
underclassification of feminised work and work more likely to be performed by First
Nations employees.
32. Additionally, there are inconsistencies across regions, with examples of roles being
classified differently according to location. This represents a distortion of work
value, likely to stem from agencies advertising roles at a higher level in tighter
geographical labour markets. This submission also highlights the inconsistencies in
the classification of APS Graduates, depending on the employee’s agency (see par.
44-45; 105-107).
33. Other examples of inconsistent classification of roles reported by CPSU members
include:
In Services Australia, the Prison Liaison Team in Western Australia is classified at
APS4, and in New South Wales they are APS5.
Defence ICT employees performing the same duties classified at EL1 in Canberra
and APS6 in Adelaide.
In Services Australia, in Scheduling, in the Medicare stream the work is classified
at APS4 level, and at APS5 in other areas.
In DSS, employees performing the equivalent roles are often classified higher in
Canberra (e.g. APS5 and APS6 staff in its Community Grants Hub state network
have supervisory responsibilities similar to EL1 staff in policy roles in Canberra,
and the Hub broadly has a much lower classification profile than Canberra).
There are reports of cultural agencies with lower pay rates for a classification
advertising roles higher than their work value because they cannot compete with
APS agencies that pay higher rates of pay for the correct classification.

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Case study – Australian Border Force Marine Unit
Employees in the Marine Unit in the Department of Home Affairs have long been underclassified
given the nature of their responsibility and the complexity of work that they perform. There is also
considerable inconsistency in classification levels among the Marine Unit.

MARINE TACTICAL OFFICERS

The primary duty of Marine Tactical Officers is to perform a law enforcement function at Australia’s
maritime borders. In this role, Marine Tactical Officers are required to undertake duties including
performing watches, boarding vessels that are suspected of unlawful entry into the Australian
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and undertaking law enforcement duties in relation to vessels
that have unlawfully entered the EEZ. Marine Tactical Officers are required to undertake training
and maintain qualifications in relation to the use of force in law enforcement situations, including
training in relation to the use of firearms.

In addition, Marine Tactical Officers are required to undertake a range of duties relating to ship
husbandry (i.e. cleaning, maintenance and general upkeep of the ship on which they work). Marine
Tactical Officers hold maritime qualifications in addition to their Use of Force qualifications. Marine
Tactical Officers are also required to have a range of other skills and personal attributes, including
the ability to understand and apply the legislation specific to their law enforcement role, the ability
to manage extended periods of time (up to 42 days) at sea, and the ability to live in confined
quarters for extended periods of time with other people.

According to APS Work Level Standards applied by the Department, an APS Level 3 employee
undertakes “straightforward tasks, although some tasks may have a level of complexity”. The work
undertaken by Marine Tactical Officers clearly falls outside of this description. They are performing a
high-risk, complex front-line law enforcement in a maritime environment. This requires a high level
of knowledge, skill and capacity to both think and act independently.

MARINE COOKS

Marine Cooks currently have an APS level ranging from APS 3 to 5, however all positions on current
ABF Marine assets are required to work autonomously and manage and lead a section (Galley and
Provisions) including the position of Food Safety Supervisor for the Marine asset and embarked
passengers. All Marine Cooks hold the same AMSA-required Deck Qualification to work in Australian
Waters on an Australian or Government flagged Vessel, which in turn requires a Nationally
Recognised Qualification of Commercial Cookery.

MARINE ENGINEERING

Marine Engineers currently have an APS level ranging from APS 5 to EL1, however most engineers
on current ABF Marine assets are required to manage and lead a section including Damage Control
evolutions of Marine asset (Engineering and Technical) and work autonomously. Marine Engineers
may hold different Classes of Marine Qualifications, however the duties, tasks and outcomes remain
the same across Marine assets.

Amongst the Marine Engineering sits an APS 4 Marine Communications Technical Officer (MCTO),
however this position has not had an Individual Job Role Profile (IJRP) or Duties Description made
available within the Vocational Job Framework.

MARINE UNIT DECK - Navigational Officer, Communications Officer, Operations Officer,
Enforcement Commander, Deputy Commanding Officer, Commanding Officer

Currently includes an APS Level ranging from APS 3 (Acting up), 5, 6 and EL1. All Levels are
responsible for the safe operation of the Marine Asset, hold relevant Marine Qualifications and have
relevant experience in the Marine Industry. Marine Unit Deck Officers conduct, supervise, lead or
command Maritime Enforcement activities.

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Indigenous employment
34. Despite APS programs to address the underrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander employees in the APS, Indigenous employees continue to be more
likely to be engaged at lower classifications and in lower paid roles. While APS6
is the most common classification for ongoing APS employees, around half of
Indigenous employees are engaged at the APS 3-4 level7. Indigenous employees
are around twice as likely to be engaged at the APS 1-4 level than non-Indigenous
employees8.
35. To address this, the APS should focus on career pathways for First Nations
employees, and take steps to address historical underclassification of roles more
likely to be performed by Indigenous employees.

Difficulty remedying underclassification
36. Under the Public Service Act, Regulations and the Commissioner’s Directions,
employees who have been performing work in an underclassified role are unable
to have their classification directly corrected. Instead, the role must be reclassified
and advertised. While upholding the merit principle is important, this represents
a barrier to resolution for employees that are already more likely to be lower paid.
Broadbanding is available as an option to address historical underclassification
where it exists.

Case Study – Home Affairs Border Monitoring Officers in the
Torres Strait
Border Monitoring Officers (BMOs) are engaged by the Department of Home Affairs to monitor
and manage the movement of people on the border between Papua New Guinea and Australia,
in accordance with the Torres Strait Treaty 1985. BMOs are primarily Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people, locally recruited from the Torres Strait.

BMOs are only classified at the APS1-2 level. According to the Australian Border Force description of
their role, they are required to:

Record the arrival and departure of Traditional Visitors undertaking activities prescribed under
the Treaty and enter these details into the Traditional Movement Monitoring system (TIMMS)
Refuse immigration clearance to persons who are not entitled to the free movement provisions
of the Treaty or whose purpose for visit is not prescribed in the Treaty and facilitate their
immediate departure (weather permitting).
Report any suspicious behaviour/movements to the Thursday island District Office.
Proactively monitor and facilitate the departure of any traditional visitor who has overstayed the
length of their visitor pass (weather permitting).

7 APS employee database release 31 December 2020
8 ibid

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Monitor and record any patients (and escorts) who are Medevac’d to or from Thursday Island/
mainland and facilitate their immediate departure (weather permitting)
Develop and maintain contact with Island Councils, Native Title bodies and other stakeholders to
reinforce border security
Under the MOU with the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR), conduct
clearing of the vessels carrying the Tradition Visitors from PNG

BMOs are also required to speak local community languages.

The complexity of these roles has increased substantially since they were established over 30 years
ago. A useful overview of changing nature of the BMO role can be found in this extract from the
coronial inquest into the deaths at sea in the sinking of the Malu Sara, which occurred in in 2005:

“Initially, the duties of the MMOs consisted of recording arrivals, subsequent departures as well
as weekly reporting to the Department’s office on Thursday Island. The MMOs were provided with
minimal equipment. MMOs work closely with the island and PNG community representatives to
manage the traditional flow of people and report on any other movement in the region. They
maintain a close working relationship with other agencies, including Australian Quarantine and
Inspection Service (AQIS) and Australian Customs Service (ACS). The MMOs are supervised by the
two team leaders on Thursday Island who report to the Regional Manager who is also based at the
Thursday Island office.

Since the inception of the role, the activities undertaken by the MMOs have increased and
diversified. Increased concerns about illegal immigrants, introduced diseases, people, firearms and
drug smuggling have all made the region more sensitive to border incursions. Preventing these
illicit activities, while facilitating traditional culturally appropriate movements around the region,
presents complex challenges. Commensurate with the increase in function, the sophistication of the
equipment available to the MMOs has also been enhanced over time. Quad bikes are now located
on some islands to assist land-based patrols and, in 1999, six boats were acquired to assist in
discharging MMOs functions”

Under the Home Affairs Work Level Standards (2013) the APS1 classification is for employees who
would “generally be required to work under close direction to undertake routine and basic tasks
against clearly defined and established priorities and procedures. Employees at this level are
responsible for the completion of allocated tasks within required timeframes and producing work
that is subject to close monitoring and checking by more senior staff. APS 1 employees may be
required to undertake procedural, clerical, administrative support and operational tasks”

Similarly, APS2 employees would generally be required to undertake straightforward tasks and
work under routine direction against established priorities and procedures while exercising some
autonomy. Employees at this level are responsible for the completion of allocated tasks within
required timeframes and producing work that is subject to close monitoring and checking by more
senior staff. APS 2 employees may be required to undertake procedural, clerical, administrative
support and operational tasks and may provide initial coaching and support to new or less
experienced colleagues.

BMOs do not work under close supervision performing routine tasks, but rather are largely required
to work autonomously to manage complex tasks associated with Australia’s border security. Their
work involves a high level of engagement with external stakeholders, including representing the
Department at public events.

The work done by BMOs most closely aligns with work that is performed at the APS4 level in
other parts of the APS. The underclassification of BMOs represents an undervaluing of the work of
Indigenous employees that has the effect of furthering the inequality in Indigenous employment in
the APS.

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Recommendations
The APS WLS should be examined and updated with a view to adopting more
rigorous language to more clearly delineate work value at each level. In some
cases, agency-specific WLS that align to the APS WLS might be more appropriate to
correctly specify work value at each level. (CPSU Recommendation 7)
Entry-level programs for Indigenous employees should not result in employees
being classified lower than their general APS counterparts. (CPSU Recommendation
8)
Broadbanding can be used to address historical underclassification, removing the
need for roles to be externally advertised. (CPSU Recommendation 9)
Measures should be adopted to assist the APS to attract and retain employees to
remove imperatives to misclassify roles. (CPSU Recommendation 10)

Broadbanding

Broadbanding and work value
37. For many roles, broadbanding is an important mechanism to appropriately recognise
employees’ development and the increasing complexity of the work they take on as
their experience develops. It can therefore support the accurate recognition of work
value. Conversely, where a broadband is removed, or administered inconsistently,
an employee performing increasingly complex work commensurate with their
experience can end up being misclassified as the work value of their duties is not
reflected in their classification level.

Barriers to progressing through a broadband
38. Artificial barriers to advancement through a broadband result in inconsistencies
and the incorrect classification of roles. In Services Australia, the APS3-4 broadband
allows employees to enter at APS3 level and progress to APS4 as they are
trained and become proficient. When Centrelink, Medicare, Child Support, and
Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service were brought together into the Department
of Human Services (DHS) and Medicare front of house staff were trained in and
started performing Centrelink duties, despite taking on more the full range of
complex work at the APS4 level, former Medicare employees were held back from
progressing through the broadband for some time. DHS managers routinely rejected
applications to progress, citing work availability and a failure to demonstrate
capacity, even though employees were already performing the APS4-level work.

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39. Those issues still exist today, with the enterprise agreement9 requiring employees
to demonstrate:
Role-related capabilities at the higher level;
Work availability; and
Satisfactory performance.
40. These barriers in Services Australia mean that employees are often held back
when they should advance, and there is a significant difficulty with inconsistent
approaches to progression.
41. The Department of Treasury has in place a barrier to progression within
classification levels, where advancement from APS6.2 to APS6.3, EL1.1 to EL1.2,
and EL2.1 to EL2.2 is subject to approval by the Remuneration Committee10.
Unfortunately there is limited awareness or information disclosed regarding the
Remuneration Committee and how individuals are considered and assessed for pay-
point advancement. These sorts of barriers to progression, with limited transparency
and broad discretion for the decision-maker, are also likely to lead to inconsistent
application and a failure to recognise work value.

Attraction and retention
42. In addition to supporting the correct reflection of work value in an employee’s
classification level as they become more experienced, broadbanding can be an
important element of a suite of strategies to attract, develop, and retain employees.
It provides a clear career path with additional remuneration as experience develops.
It is one strategy available to assist the APS compete with the private sector to
attract and retain skilled employees. APS lawyers, ICT/Digital professionals, and
scientists contributing to the CPSU submission reported that broadbands are critical
for attraction and retention of professional employees.
43. Unfortunately, there are considerable inconsistencies among agencies when it
comes to the availability of broadbands. For example, some agencies have retained
a legal broadband, others have not. Some have an ICT broadband, others do not.
There is inconsistency in the levels that graduates can access during and after their
training, depending on the agency. Some of the inconsistencies between the largest
APS agencies are set out in the table below.

9 Department of Human Services Agreement 2017-2020, C3.5
10 Treasury Enterprise Agreement 2018-2021, Schedule A

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Major agency ICT, legal and graduate broadbanding

ICT Legal Graduates

Services Australia* APS5-6 broadband APS5-6 broadband APS3-5

No ICT broadband.
ATO Advancement
Information Technology
Broadband, range not
ATO Officer class 1 (paying No broadband
specified in enterprise
a higher salary than
agreement
other APS4 roles).

No agency-wide ICT Legal 1 (APS3 – EL1)
Defence* APS3-4
broadband Legal 2 (EL2)
A separate
APS Graduate
Home Affairs No broadband APS4-6 broadband classification exists,
APS levels not
specified

*Agency Head able to create new broadbands throughout the life of the enterprise agreement

Broadbanding of APS Graduates
44. For Graduates, these inconsistencies can represent a disappointing start to their
career in the APS. Some graduates are able to progress from APS3 to APS4 during
the program, others remain at APS3. Some are able to progress to APS5 at the
completion of the program, others remain at APS4 for some time. Other agencies
conduct external bulk recruitment rounds at the end of the program to offer roles
at the higher level, which is a waste of agency resources, is a stressful process for
employees, and unfair to external applicants who apply.
45. Inconsistencies undermine broader efforts to attract and retain. This is the case
for Digital Graduates, who currently undertake a common program auspiced by
the Digital Transformation Agency, but who are classified at different levels during
and after the program, depending on the agency they are employed in. This is
demoralising for graduates and threatens to undermine the strong sense of a
profession that the APS has been working towards for Digital professionals. These
issues are further explored at par. 105-107

Broadbanding and enterprise agreements
46. Despite the benefits for attraction and retention, in recent years there has been a
trend towards removing broadbands from enterprise agreements. Some broadbands
have been lost as a combined result of machinery of government changes and the

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application of the “no enhancement rule” in successive bargaining policies11. The
APSC has required agencies to remove broadbands where it has used the gaining
agency’s enterprise agreement as a benchmark to assess a proposed enterprise
agreement. Agencies have therefore had to jettison conditions applying to staff
coming into the gaining agency, including broadbands.
47. Additionally, the “no enhancements” rule makes it incredibly difficult for an agency
looking to introduce a broadband where one does not already exist. These artificial
inflexibilities imposed by the bargaining policy onto enterprise bargaining limit
the options available to agencies to adopt sensible strategies for attraction and
retention, such as considered use of broadbanding.

Recommendations
In service delivery areas, agencies should remove impediments to progression
through broadbands, so that work value of the work performed can be accurately
reflected in employees’ classification and remuneration. This will help correct the
undervaluation of service delivery work. (CPSU Recommendation 5)
Agencies should be encouraged to utilise broadbanding where work value of a role
spans more than one level as employees’ experience develops. Artificial barriers
to progression such as work availability tests should be avoided, as they lead to
inconsistencies in progression. (CPSU Recommendation 11)
Agency heads should have the ability to create broadbands during the life of an
enterprise agreement. (CPSU Recommendation 12)
The “no enhancements rule” should be abandoned so that agencies are able to
negotiate changes to conditions that support their capability, such as changes to
broadbanding arrangements. (CPSU Recommendation 13)

Labour market shortage and skills in
demand
48. There must be mechanisms for APS agencies to attract and retain employees
where there is high demand and a tight labour market for those skills. This is an
important issue for the Review, because the parameters for remuneration and career
progression are set in large part by the classification structure.
49. For some occupations or disciplines, the APS is competing with the private sector
which can pay higher rates of pay. For example, it is well-known that the APS
currently struggles to attract and retain digital and ICT employees, who are critical
to developing the in-house capability of the APS.

11 Workplace Bargaining Policy 2018, par. 49; Public Sector Workplace Relations Policy 2020, par. 49

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50. CPSU digital/ICT members, some who manage teams, report that:
The APS cannot compete with private sector salaries for digital/ICT professionals;
The Canberra labour market is particularly tight, with contractors able to earn
multiples of APS salaries;
Insecure forms of employment contribute to turnover in some cases, and where
agencies are not able to provide certainty to employees about their contracts
continuing, those staff tend to leave for the private sector before their contracts
expire.

How agencies are currently addressing the problem of
attraction and retention
51. Without appropriate measures to attract and retain in-demand skills, there is
a tendency to misclassify roles when they are advertised, which distorts the
classification system and does not reflect work value. This tendency is exacerbated
by discrepancies in pay rates between APS agencies, which has, on occasion,
resulted in agencies with lower rates of pay at a given level reclassifying a role to
attract applicants, in competition with other APS agencies.
52. At the same time, there is a tendency for agencies to require specialists at the EL1
and EL2 level to manage employees. Many technical specialists do not want to
manage employees, but want to have a career path where the increased complexity
of work can be recognised as they progress through the classification structure.
53. Other agencies have attempted to address the issue by offering individual
employees Individual Flexibility Arrangements (IFAs). Unfortunately, these
arrangements lack transparency, tend to exacerbate the gender pay gap12, and
create fairness and equity issues in the workforce, which undermines trust and
works against efforts to attract and retain valuable employees. The PM&C Zone
of Discretion, which allows the agency to pay an APS6-El2 employee above the
top pay point of the band in exceptional circumstances13, creates similar issues. A
better approach involves payments to groups of employees within an in-demand
occupation or discipline. This is explored in the case study below.

12 Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Gender pay equity in awards and enterprise agreements, November 2017. Retrieved from
https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/pay_equity_and_awards.pdf
13 Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Enterprise Agreement 2017-2020, clause 185

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Case Study – Building Defence Capability Payment
The Defence Collective Agreement 2006-2009 introduced the Building Defence Capability Payment
(BDCP). The BDCP (currently clause B2.3 of the Defence Enterprise Agreement 2017-2020) allows the
agency to pay a premium to groups of employees within a critical occupation or discipline, where
the skills are critical to the capability of the agency, and where such payment assists with attraction,
development and retention of those employees.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The agency receives a submission from the work area or employees (and their representatives)
in a work area.
The appropriate delegate reviews the proposal.
Employees in the identified category then receive a premium in addition to the rate of pay
applicable under the enterprise agreement.
Employees may also receive a bonus on the completion of a specified task or at the end of a
specified period, to assist the agency retain those employees.

The arrangement remains in place for the duration of the enterprise agreement.

Employees’ terms and conditions continue to be regulated by the enterprise agreement, and are
not modified by the application of the BDCP.
This payment has been used to attract and retain employees in critical areas such as
submarine technicians, air traffic controllers, the Torpedo Product Team.
There was previously a linkage between the internal approval of a BDCP arrangement and a
requirement to develop skills internal to the Defence APS workforce to mitigate future skill
shortfalls.

Competing on pay
54. The APS can struggle to compete with the private sector on pay. This difficulty has
been exacerbated by the cumulative effect of:
Effective wage freezes (resulting from a protracted APS bargaining round from
2014-2017);
The 6-month wage deferral decision of government in April 2020; and
Successive wage restraint policies in the APS, including the 2% wage cap and the
current cap of the annual seasonally adjusted Wage Price Index for the Private
sector, which requires agencies to offer unknown wage increases over the life of
enterprise agreements or Public Service Act determinations.
55. These decisions on wages undermine strategies to attract and retain the skills that
the APS needs.

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Innovating on conditions: the natural advantage of the
public sector
56. The APS used to have a competitive advantage on conditions. Flexible working
conditions, achieved through enterprise bargaining when agencies and their
ministers had the flexibility to negotiate without veto by the APSC, previously
allowed the APS to compete with the private sector on non-monetary benefits. This
has included:
Flex time and EL TOIL;
Maternity & primary carer’s leave of 14 weeks and above;
Supporting partner leave;
A minimum of 15.4% superannuation guaranteed for all funds, including when
employees exercise choice;
Strong consultation provisions and workplace representation; and
A range of agency-specific initiatives.
57. These conditions form part of a package that has allowed the APS to compete
with the private sector for skills. However, the private sector is now increasingly
taking the lead. There is currently a risk that the APS falls behind as private sector
employers increasingly adopt flexible working arrangements to promote gender
balance and attract and retain employees.
58. The “no enhancements” rule in the current bargaining policy14 effectively freezes
enterprise agreement conditions at a point in time, preventing them from
continuing to adapt and improve on the non-monetary package available to APS
employees. The APS is therefore no longer innovating on the overall employment
package through enterprise bargaining, and has foregone its natural advantage
against the private sector.
59. This undermines the APS Workforce Strategy 2025 objective of a “compelling
employee value proposition that is well positioned to attract top Australian talent
to choose a career with the APS”15.

Workplace flexibility and the location of roles
60. As noted previously, COVID-19 dramatically changed the way the APS and broader
Australian workforce performed its work during the pandemic. It demonstrated
that the APS could get the job done with a significant proportion of its workforce
working from home.
61. There is an opportunity to adopt flexible work and flexibility of the location of roles
as part of a concerted workforce strategy to widen the pool of skills available to the
APS to support APS capability. This potential benefit is noted in The APS Workforce

14 Public Sector Workplace Bargaining Policy 2020, par. 49
15 Delivering for Tomorrow: APS Workforce Strategy 2025, Commonwealth of Australia, 2021, p. 5

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Strategy 2025, and in particular, presents a clear opportunity for the ICT/digital
workforce.

The professions
62. CPSU members drawn from the professions, but particularly science and digital/
ICT, stress the importance of the APS facilitating the attainment of professional
qualifications and supporting membership of professional bodies. The APS should
adopt a more consistent approach to supporting the professions in this regard.

Case study – recognition of specialist skills in WLS
The Defence Classification Manual recognises that employees may advance to higher classification
levels with or without management responsibility, particularly where specialist skills are required
and increase the work value of work at that level.

There are two streams:

Human Science and Administration (HSA); and
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE).

Jobs are categorised within one of three principal roles:

Practitioner (works within established frameworks);
Innovator (advances the next generation of frameworks); or
Manager (directs a range of human and physical resources).

This allows work value to reflect management responsibilities as well as specialist skills

EL1 HSA & PSE EL2 HSA & PSE
Involves very complex activities, where
Involves complex to very complex supervision of others may be required.
activities, where supervision of others
may be required. In the case of employees who
undertake very complex activities, who
Practitioner In the case of practitioners that largely have considerable independence (as
undertake very complex activities, opposed to receiving broad direction),
supervision of others is not required at supervision of others is not required.
this level.

Undertakes a narrow range of activities Undertakes a narrow range of activities
Innovator that are novel, may or may not supervise that are extremely complex, may or may
others. not supervise others.
Management at a medium level of
Manager Management at a high level of difficulty.
difficulty.

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Options to attract and retain employees
63. The APS should adopt a combination of approaches to attract and retain employees.
It is important that such measures:
Maintain the integrity of the classification system and not compromise work
value;
Are capable of applying to emerging skill shortages and demands which are not
currently foreseeable.
Are transparent and fair. A lack of transparency erodes trust and undermines
efforts to attract and retain.
Do not entrench tendencies to undervalue and underclassify work more likely to
be performed by women, First Nations employees, or people with a disability.
Are supported by remuneration and conditions delivered through genuine
enterprise bargaining that restores the former competitive advantage of the APS
to innovate on conditions.
Apply to groups of employees within an occupation or a discipline. Individual
arrangements tend to widen the gender pay gap and create other fairness and
equity issues, eroding trust and undermining efforts to attract and retain valuable
employees.

Recommendations
Broadbanding should be more widely used an important measure to attract,
develop, and retain employees. It allows employees to progress through to higher
levels as their competency develops and they undertake more and more complex
work. (CPSU Recommendation 14)
Group payments to pay a premium to employees in critical occupations or
disciplines should be facilitated in enterprise agreements. Such payments and
retention bonuses allow agencies to attract, retain, and develop critical groups of
employees, without distorting work value or the classification system, and without
the gender impacts or equity and fairness issues that exist with IFAs. (CPSU
Recommendation 15)
Work Level Standards should allow for specialist skills to classified at EL1 and EL2
level, subject to clear guidance on work value. (CPSU Recommendation 16)
Working from home should continue to be widely available to support APS
capability, help with the attraction and retention of employees, and to open
up opportunities to advertise roles from a broader range of locations. (CPSU
Recommendation 3)
The ability for agencies to negotiate freely on conditions in enterprise bargaining
should be restored, so that the APS can resume its natural advantage to innovate on
the conditions component of the employment package. (CPSU Recommendation 17)
Wage restraint in the federal public sector should be abandoned, and instead
policies to address wage stagnation in the APS and broader labour market should
be actively adopted. (CPSU Recommendation 18)

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Mobility in the APS should be supported by the capacity for APS employees to
bargain collectively for a common set of core conditions and pay, with agency-
specific issues bargained at the agency level, similar to the model in the ACT
jurisdiction. (CPSU Recommendation 2)
There should be a standard approach to facilitating the attainment of professional
qualifications and supporting membership of professional bodies for professionals.
(CPSU Recommendation 19)
Recruitment processes should be conducted swiftly and efficiently to APS missing
out on the best recruits for a position because of lengthy delays finalising
recruitment processes. (CPSU Recommendation 20)
64. The CPSU recommends the adoption of a blend of strategies to attract, develop, and
retain employees in critical occupations or disciplines.

Information Technology
65. High quality ICT systems and technical support are essential for APS employees to
do their day-to-day jobs and for the APS to successfully deliver services. COVID-19
has shown the importance of digital capacity for the delivery of services and the
basic functioning of public services Australians rely on as more Australians accessed
Government services digitally and 56% of APS employees worked from home during
the pandemic16, rising to 64% when Victoria went into lockdown in August 2020.
Up-to-date ICT skills within the APS are therefore essential to the functioning of the
APS.
66. Insufficient investment in ICT capabilities and in-house skills has meant that the
APS lags behind the private sector in ICT investment and capacity. The CPSU has
made numerous submissions about this since 2008, most notably in relation to the
Senate Inquiry into Digital Delivery of Government Services17 and the Inquiry into
the Current Capability of the Australian Public Service18.

Loss of internal capacity
67. There is a broad recognition that the APS has lost critical in-house ICT capacity
through an overreliance on outsourcing19. In 2019-20 the use of external ICT
contractors used by the APS outnumbered that of internal APS staff. Services

16 Australian Public Service Commission (2020). State of the Service Report 2019-20. Retrieved from https://www .apsc.gov .au/
state-service-report-2019-20
17 CPSU, CPSU (PSU Group) Submission: Digital delivery of government services, September 2017, https://www.aph.gov.au/
Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/digitaldelivery/Submissions
18 CPSU, Submission to the inquiry into the current capability of the Australian Public Service (APS), February 2021, https://
www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/CurrentAPSCapabilities/
Submissions
19 See above submission for further discussion.

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Australia’s ICT contractor ASL was 2,443 compared to an internal ASL of 2,266. The
Department of Home affairs had an outsourced ICT workforce of 694 compared to
677 internal ICT staff. Most strikingly, the Department of Defence engaged 4334 ICT
contractors and maintained internal ICT staffing of only 99520.
68. CPSU members report that the remaining internal ICT roles in Defence tend to
focus on contract management. Relying on external service providers in Defence
creates complications when dealing with contractors who are foreign nationals, and
difficulties getting security clearance for those working on the system to see the
front end.
69. As spending on external contractors has increased, spending on internal ICT staff
has decreased, reducing internal capacity. The erosion of internal ICT experience
(especially at more senior levels of project management) has implications for
contracting, perpetuating the need to outsource more and more work. It is difficult
to manage a contract when there is limited in-house knowledge or experience of
what is being managed. This reduces the ability of agencies to set requirements,
manage relationships and assess the value of the services provided.
70. In a recent CPSU survey of just under 6000 CPSU members, half (51 .9%) agreed
or strongly agreed that increased costs, delays and failure of ICT projects is due to
issues with the APS management of contracts and projects. Many commented that a
lack of ICT skills and knowledge was a major factor in problems with management.
The lack of ICT knowledge by those overseeing contracts was also a point affirmed
by the Report of the ICT Procurement Taskforce. It identified that the capability and
capacity issues included a lack of technical ICT capability and market nous required
to articulate the requirements sought and assess the potential solutions on offer,
decision-making resting with individuals without technical expertise, and the
inability to adapt as technology or circumstances change21.
71. There is a need to invest in ICT skills and knowledge amongst APS staff. Over half
(56 .3%) of surveyed members said that their agency does not provide skills and
development opportunities to keep the APS workforce at the forefront of ICT skills
development.
72. The APS should focus on bringing contracted roles back in-house and better
developing the skills of APS employees. A starting point for this would be removing
current restrictions on ASL and staff spending that are driving outsourcing. Where
outsourcing is required due to lack of internal knowledge or familiarity with
systems, contract terms should require skill transfers back into the APS. Agencies
should undertake standard SFIA skills mapping and gap analysis to identify
opportunities for staff development and recruitment. We understand that some
agencies currently do this, but its use is inconsistent across the service. Where
possible, further training and development should be offered to APS employees to
address skills gaps.

20 Digital Transofrormation Agency, Inquiry into the current capability of the Australian Public Service, Answers to Questions on
Notice 26 May 2021
21 Digital Transformation Agency (2017, May). Report of the ICT Procurement Taskforce. Retrieved from https://www.dta .gov .au/
help-and-advice/ict-procurement/ict-procurement-taskforce-report

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Attraction and retention
73. Although ASL restrictions and overreliance on contractors are the primary causes of
the loss of internal capacity, the APS also has issues with attracting and retaining
highly skilled ICT staff. The classification structure needs to be able to facilitate this.
74. For reasons discussed above, the APS struggles to compete with private sector
salaries. The high use of external contractors to perform APS work means that,
especially in Canberra, employees can easily leave and pick up similar work as a
contractor at much higher rates of pay. The APS Workforce Strategy 2025 notes that
68% of APS ICT roles are based in Canberra, yet for the Australian labour market,
60-70% of workers in specialist ICT occupations are based in Victoria and NSW22.
Advertising ICT roles in a wider range of locations would enable the APS to draw on
a broader pool of skilled workers, instead of contributing to the tight labour market
for ICT skills in Canberra.
75. Some agencies have sought to address this issue through the use of Individual
Flexibility Arrangements (IFAs) or other payments at an individual level for ICT
workers. However, this is not an appropriate mechanism to provide additional
remuneration because there is no transparency to these arrangements. They are
reliant on the views of individual managers and agency budget constraints. The
use of individual remuneration methods exacerbates gender pay gaps compared
to remuneration that is set by an enterprise agreement23. In addition, IFAs can be
unilaterally cancelled, and their threated removal can be used as a sanction for
staff.
76. More effective measures to address labour market issues are discussed above and
apply equally to ICT workers. In addition, greater access to training and development
opportunities and professional memberships would help with the retention of staff.
CPSU members have commented that training, even for some basic skillsets, is
often not available and it can be hard get approval for more advanced training. The
Department of Defence pays for ICT staff memberships to the Australian Computing
Society which is a move that other agencies should follow.

Career progression
77. The APS clearly has a need for highly skilled ICT professionals to perform complex
technical work. However, in some agencies the classification structure does not
provide for technical roles at the EL1 and EL2 level. Progression to EL1 and EL2 in
these agencies requires employees to take on managerial responsibilities.
78. Many skilled ICT staff prefer to remain in technical roles or may not be suited to
managerial duties despite their advanced technical skills. The unavailability of
executive level technical roles has limited the ability of some agencies to provide

22 Delivering for Tomorrow: APS Workforce Strategy 2025, Commonwealth of Australia, 2021, p. 8
23 Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Gender pay equity in awards and enterprise agreements, November 2017. Retrieved from
https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/pay_equity_and_awards.pdf

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a career path based on technical skills, resulting in the loss of staff to the private
sector. It has also meant that some skilled technical employees have been advanced
to management roles in order to retain them and provide career progression
despite the fact that they may not have the management skills to effectively
perform the role.
79. Some agencies have recognised this and have created technical positions at the
executive level in their classification structure, but there is inconsistency across the
APS.

Consistent application of classification system
80. CPSU members report that commensurate jobs are classified differently by location
within the one agency, with higher classifications applying in Canberra. Other
employees report that it is not possible to reach EL1 or EL2 level outside of
Canberra in their agency.
81. ICT roles are particularly suited to being performed remotely or from regional
offices. Advertising more senior ICT roles across all regions would provide for career
advancement in all offices and may help overcome some of the Canberra labour
market issues discussed above and allow access to a broader talent pool.

Recommendations:
ASL restrictions should be removed to enable agencies to employ additional staff
on a permanent basis. (CPSU Recommendation 21)
Agencies should identify skills gaps that lead to the repeat use of ICT contractors
for the same work, and develop a plan to develop those skills in-house. (CPSU
Recommendation 22)
Consultants and contractors should be required to provide skills transfer to APS
staff as a term of their engagement. (CPSU Recommendation 23)
Agencies should be required to undertake a cost-comparison analysis prior to the
engagement of external staff, factoring in both the financial cost and longer-term
impacts on agency capacity and capability. (CPSU Recommendation 24)
The APS should aim to be an employer of choice for ICT workers by providing
distinct career pathways, structured learning and development programs, and
appropriate classification and remuneration scales embedded in enterprise
agreements. (CPSU Recommendation 25)
Agencies should undertake standard SFIA mapping and gap analysis. (CPSU
Recommendation 26)
A suite of measures should be adopted to aid attraction and retention as discussed
earlier in this submission. (See CPSU Recommendations 10-18)
Where additional remuneration is required to attract and retain ICT staff, this
should be provided through transparent group payments provided in enterprise
agreements rather than IFAs. (CPSU Recommendation 27)

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There should be improved access to training for ICT employees to develop
professional skills and career opportunities. (CPSU Recommendation 28)
Agencies should pay for professional memberships and certifications such as for the
Australian Computing Society. (CPSU Recommendation 29)
Agencies should adopt a deliberate strategy to advertise ICT positions across all
regions to be performed at any location. (CPSU Recommendation 30)
Work Level Standards across the APS should accommodate technical ICT specialists
at EL1 and EL2 level to provide a career path to more senior roles without having
to take on managerial responsibilities. (CPSU Recommendation 31)
Below EL1 level, ICT employees should be able to progress through an ICT
broadband. (CPSU Recommendation 32)

Legal
82. Government Lawyer functions require employees with specific public sector skills
and experience in addition to legal qualifications and technical skills. Government
lawyers need to operate effectively within an environment that often combines
legal, policy and political considerations as well as adhering to model litigant
requirements.
83. Government Lawyers who have contributed to the CPSU submission have lamented
that the specialist skills and qualifications that they are required to have, and
complex work that they perform are not recognised in their classification structures.
84. Lawyers are required to have completed a law degree and most are required to
have completed further study to be admitted as a lawyer. There should be more
consistent recognition of the specialist skills and qualifications required in legal
roles.

Government Lawyer Broadbands
85. Broadbanding is seen as critical for attraction and retention of APS lawyers as they
develop these skills and experience. The broadband allows for seamless progression
and a transparent career path as government lawyers gain relevant experience and
are able to perform work of increasing complexity with greater independence.
86. For example in the ATO, the Tax Counsel Network (TCN) within Law Design and
Practice, has EL1 and EL2 employees performing law interpretation and advice work.
At both levels, employees are primarily technical officers (not managers) and do the
same type of work and carry a very similar workload. This similarity in the nature of
the work and complexity suggests that there should be an EL1-EL2 broadband to
allow an EL1 to progress to the EL2 level automatically with the nature of the work

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done, standard of work done, and potentially, upon completion of specific leadership
or technical modules.
87. The existence of legal broadbands is inconsistent in the APS and there has been
a move in the last ten years to remove government lawyer broadbands from
enterprise agreements, undermining the career progression for lawyers. Stark
examples of this occurred during recent machinery of government changes from
MRT, RRT and SSAT to AAT in 2015 and when industrial relations staff moved from
the Department of Jobs and Small business to the AGD in 2019.

Case study – movement of workplace relation lawyers into AGD
Workplace relations lawyers in the Department of Jobs and Small Business (and predecessor
departments) had been covered by a government lawyer broadband for over 20 years. Attachment
C of the Department of Jobs and Small Business Enterprise Agreement 2019-21 provided for annual
advancement of APS level from APS3 to APS6, provided that lawyers met key business deliverables.
These advancement opportunities were advertised to graduates, new employees and specialist
industrial relations lawyers. The legal-specific entry level program and career path had been a key
measure to attract and retain graduate lawyers in the Department and beneficial pay and conditions
(including the broadband) was a crucial way to ensure the attraction and retention of specialist
industrial relations lawyers from the private sector and elsewhere.

When the workplace relations functions of the Department of Jobs and Small Business were moved
to the Attorney General’s Department (AGD) in 2019, this broadband was not maintained. The
rationale was that it did not align with the classification of other legislative and legal policy roles in
the AGD and any inclusion of a new legal broadband in the Department would be an enhancement,
contrary to the APS Bargaining Policy.

The effect of this is that for industrial relations lawyers in the department there are now hard
barriers between APS 3/4/5/6 levels. Career progression can only happen through open competitive
bulk recruitment rounds in the Department targeted at policy generalists and are not designed to
promote staff with specialist experience. In many cases employees are not successful in securing
the higher-level position as they are coming into the bulk round process at a disadvantage because
the skills they have gained in the legal area do not equip them to succeed in a generalist policy bulk
round. They are forced to continue at the lower APS level even though they have gained the relevant
skills and experience and are performing work with the independence and complexity required of
the higher level.

This then results in more employees congregated at lower levels rather than advancing in their
career.

Lawyers have left the Department because they have felt that their career progression has been
stunted and opportunities for advancement were limited.

In addition, the retaining lawyers performing legal advice, litigation and legislative and legal policy
work on a general broadband undervalues the importance of this work and the need to attract
highly skilled employees with legal qualifications to those roles.

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Attraction and retention
88. Flexible working arrangements are particularly important for the attraction and
retention of lawyers in the public sector, where remuneration cannot match what
can be made at the Bar or in private sector firms.
89. However, the APS needs to avoid complacency on this front given that the private
sector is catching up in a number of areas. For example, paid parental leave and
supporting partner leave entitlements are significantly improving in the private
sector with many firms making primary care giver leave available regardless of
gender24. In addition, working from home is now being facilitated much more in the
private sector.
90. At the same time, access to flex time is being restricted in some agencies.
An example of where this issue is felt acutely is in the Department of Public
Prosecutors where lawyers performing complex litigation work are paid the same as
corporate staff at the equivalent classification level but do not have to the access to
flextime that the corporate staff have.

Skill and career development
91. In most APS agencies litigation work tends to be outsourced, which can limit the
opportunity for skill development of in-house lawyers. Some work does need to be
performed externally, however there should be greater opportunities to perform
litigation preparation and briefing work, even if counsel is required for court and
tribunal appearances. The Department of Public Prosecutions provides a good
example of how litigation work can be effectively done in-house.
92. Training, skilling and on-the-job experience doesn’t always support the jump
from government lawyer at APS6 to senior government lawyer at EL1 and
the management duties that are required at that level. Some members have
commented that more needs to be done to develop management skills before
advancement to the EL1 level.
93. Also, in the larger agencies, the ability to do more complex advocacy at EL1 and EL2
level might assist with retention of those who do not want to exclusively manage
other staff.

Recommendations:
Broadbands should be utilised to attract and retain APS lawyers and support their
career development. (CPSU Recommendation 33)
The legal broadband and classification scheme should extend to all roles that
require legal education and skills, including legal policy and legislative roles. (CPSU
Recommendation 34)

24 https://womenlawyersnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/WLANSW-Law-Firm-Comparison-Report-2019R.pdf

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Agencies should actively support in-house lawyers to play a role in litigation
preparation. (CPSU Recommendation 35)

Science
94. While some CPSU members like the freedom to move between technical and
management roles, there are limited opportunities to continue in a purely science-
based role at the higher levels of the APS (e.g. EL1/EL2 and beyond) because the
culture of what is required at the more senior level isn’t necessarily conducive to
developing or maintaining depth of expertise.
95. CPSU members tell us that at times they feel a lack of respect for technical
scientific skills in the APS, with some even noting that they do not put their Phd on
their signature block for fear of bullying.
96. It is important to maintain and rebuild scientific leadership within the APS.
Although some agencies engage chief scientists, this is not consistent. For example,
the Department of Environment no longer has a chief scientist. Chief Scientist
positions and other senior, technical roles should exist in all major agencies
performing scientific work with the option for smaller agencies to pool their
scientific leadership.
97. Members spoke positively about the work being done to establish a chief
scientists’ network in the APS and the work being done in the Government Science
and Engineering Network in the UK in order to get the balance right between
recognising professional skills and not pigeon-holing employees, given the broad
applications of scientific skills in the APS.
98. Implementation of a scientific professional stream, similar to work underway for HR,
Data and Digital employees, would help elevate the importance of scientific skills
and the standing of government scientists. Scientists working in the data area tell
us that they have not heard much about the data professional stream. More work
needs to be done to expand this program beyond the entry level programs.
99. Career development and the maintenance of professional skills is a real issue
for scientists in the APS. Members we spoke to recognise the different nature
of scientific work performed in the APS compared to more researched based
environments like universities or CSIRO, however members that have come from
a research background have told us that a career in the APS brings more job
security than in the university sector, but it comes at the expense of their continued
expertise and professional standing.
100. Given the limited ability to publish papers or undertake research, their standing
in the broader scientific community is diminished which makes mobility between
the APS and research areas very difficult. In order to maintain their currency, CPSU
members tell us that they have to publish papers in their own time.

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101. Although most scientific research in Australia is done outside the APS, without
depth of expertise in the APS it can be hard to critically assess the quality of
research that is subsequently used to form the basis of government policy and other
work.
102. In order to assist staff in their career and professional development, the APS should
support it scientific staff by facilitating the publication of papers by allowing paid
time for scientists to work on them and looking at how research is published in the
APS.
103. CPSU members would also welcome more opportunities for secondments to CSIRO
or other organisations, and ability to attend and/or present at conferences and
symposia.

Recommendations
Enterprise agreements should provide science broadbands to support attraction and
retention. (CPSU Recommendation 36)
A scientific professional stream should be examined, similar to work already
underway for HR, Data and Digital professionals. The UK Government Science and
Engineering network could be examined as a model. (CPSU Recommendation 37)
There should be greater opportunities for Government Scientists to maintain
their standing in the broader scientific community, with the APS facilitating
the publication of papers and providing opportunities to attend and present at
conferences. (CPSU Recommendation 38)

Graduates
104. Graduate programs provide a good entry point to the APS and in general, set
graduates up well for an APS career. However, there is an inconsistency between
agencies in the length of graduate programs, the training and qualifications
provided, and the opportunities for advancement during and after the program.
105. For example, some graduates remain an APS3 for the duration of the program and
then progress to APS4. Others can progress from APS3-4 during the program, and
progress again to APS5 at the conclusion. Some Graduates remain at APS4 level for
some time after the completion of the program.
106. In most cases, enterprise agreements provide minimal prescription in relation to
how graduates are to be classified on a training broadband. This allows for wide
variations in the application of classifications and can often have more to do
with the customs of the graduate’s work area or internal budget considerations as
opposed the level of work being performed by the graduate.

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107. These inconsistencies can also apply within an agency. In the DSS, the practice
had been to advance graduates to the APS4 level on completion of the Graduate
program. However, in 2018 the practice changed to advance graduates to the APS5
level upon completion of the program, meaning that some graduates from the
preceding year were leap-frogged and missed out on advancement opportunities.
108. This inconsistency means that often Graduates are performing work above their APS
level.
109. There is also an inconsistency in the training that is provided to graduates.
Feedback given to the CPSU is that training can differ greatly between agencies
and between graduate cohorts for different years. Some graduates are offered
certificate-level qualifications as part of their program, others have the opportunity
to complete graduate-diplomas. Offering higher-level qualifications as part of the
program would assist with attraction and retention.
110. Current graduates have spoken highly of the specialist training offered on a cross-
agency basis as part of the new professional stream programs in the digital and HR
areas. They have told us that the training and networking opportunities provided to
graduates are worthwhile. For example, in the HR stream, the training covers real-
life case studies from across the APS, potentially helpful for a career in the APS. In
Digital, graduates obtain membership of the Australian Computing Society and a
dedicated training program delivered by the Digital Transformation Agency.
111. We note that other specialist programs also exist for STEM, data and intelligence
graduates. The CPSU supports these specialist programs and would like to see
them expanded to other areas. For example, in legal and policy streams, which have
existed in some individual agencies but lack the service-wide approach.
112. However, even within professional streams, graduates are inconsistently classified
at the end of the program depending on the agency they work in, and graduates can
find career pathways and advancement opportunities limited in some agencies. This
can lead to retention issues in some agencies and professional groups.
113. To encourage graduates to remain in the APS, there should be equal focus on
specialist, service wide programs that continue after the graduate program.
Consistent post-graduate program broadbands can assist with this.
114. Past graduates have also told us that training opportunities and support to obtain
further formal qualifications are very inconsistent across the service and can be
lacking in some agencies. There should be more consistent application of further
training opportunities and explicit support to undertake further formal training
relevant to their career.

Recommendations
There should be greater consistency in the length of, and opportunities for
advancement within graduate programs. (CPSU Recommendation 39)

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There should be more consistent use of training broadbands up to the APS6 level to
allow for advancement following the graduate programs as graduates develop their
skills and work more independently. (CPSU Recommendation 40)
Greater detail about the above mechanisms should be included in enterprise
agreements to ensure consistency in their use. (CPSU Recommendation 41)
The specialist stream graduate programs should be continued where they exist
and expand these into more areas – for example consistent use of legal and policy
graduate programs with cross agency training programs. (CPSU Recommendation 42)

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Schedule A: CPSU Recommendations
CPSU Recommendation 1
There needs to be adequate training and clear lines of communications for
employees who volunteer to be part of a surge workforce.

CPSU Recommendation 2
Mobility in the APS should be supported by the capacity for APS employees to
bargain collectively for a common set of core conditions and pay, with agency-
specific issues bargained at the agency level, similar to the model in the ACT
jurisdiction.

CPSU Recommendation 3
Working from home should continue to be widely available to support APS
capability, help with the attraction and retention of employees, and to open up
opportunities to advertise roles from a broader range of locations.

CPSU Recommendation 4
APS2 and APS3 service delivery roles should be reviewed, with underclassification
addressed through broadbanding arrangements.

CPSU Recommendation 5
In service delivery areas, agencies should remove impediments to progression
through broadbands, so that work value of the work performed can be accurately
reflected in employees’ classification and remuneration. This will help correct the
undervaluation of service delivery work.

CPSU Recommendation 6
The APS Work Level Standards as they apply to service delivery work should be
reviewed, to provide more detailed guidance and clearer language to delineate work
value at each classification level.

CPSU Recommendation 7
The APS WLS should be examined and updated with a view to adopting more
rigorous language to more clearly delineate work value at each level. In some
cases, agency-specific WLS that align to the APS WLS might be more appropriate to
correctly specify work value at each level.

CPSU Recommendation 8
Entry-level programs for Indigenous employees should not result in employees
being classified lower than their general APS counterparts.

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CPSU Recommendation 9
Broadbanding can be used to address historical underclassification, removing the
need for roles to be externally advertised.

CPSU Recommendation 10
Measures should be adopted to assist the APS to attract and retain employees to
remove imperatives to misclassify roles.

CPSU Recommendation 11
Agencies should be encouraged to utilise broadbanding where work value of a role
spans more than one level as employees’ experience develops. Artificial barriers
to progression such as work availability tests should be avoided, as they lead to
inconsistencies in progression.

CPSU Recommendation 12
Agency heads should have the ability to create broadbands during the life of an
enterprise agreement.

CPSU Recommendation 13
The “no enhancements rule” should be abandoned so that agencies are able to
negotiate changes to conditions that support their capability, such as changes to
broadbanding arrangements.

CPSU Recommendation 14
Broadbanding should be more widely used an important measure to attract, develop,
and retain employees. It allows employees to progress through to higher levels as
their competency develops and they undertake more and more complex work.

CPSU Recommendation 15
Group payments to pay a premium to employees in critical occupations or
disciplines should be facilitated in enterprise agreements. Such payments and
retention bonuses allow agencies to attract, retain, and develop critical groups of
employees, without distorting work value or the classification system, and without
the gender impacts or equity and fairness issues that exist with IFAs.

CPSU Recommendation 16
Work Level Standards should allow for specialist skills to classified at EL1 and EL2
level, subject to clear guidance on work value.

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CPSU Recommendation 17
The ability for agencies to negotiate freely on conditions in enterprise bargaining
should be restored, so that the APS can resume its natural advantage to innovate on
the conditions component of the employment package.

CPSU Recommendation 18
Wage restraint in the federal public sector should be abandoned, and instead
policies to address wage stagnation in the APS and broader labour market should be
actively adopted.

CPSU Recommendation 19
There should be a standard approach to facilitating the attainment of professional
qualifications and supporting membership of professional bodies for professionals.

CPSU Recommendation 20
Recruitment processes should be conducted swiftly and efficiently to APS missing
out on the best recruits for a position because of lengthy delays finalising
recruitment processes.

CPSU Recommendation 21
ASL restrictions should be removed to enable agencies to employ additional staff on
a permanent basis.

CPSU Recommendation 22
Agencies should identify skills gaps that lead to the repeat use of ICT contractors for
the same work, and develop a plan to develop those skills in-house.

CPSU Recommendation 23
Consultants and contractors should be required to provide skills transfer to APS staff
as a term of their engagement.

CPSU Recommendation 24
Agencies should be required to undertake a cost-comparison analysis prior to the
engagement of external staff, factoring in both the financial cost and longer-term
impacts on agency capacity and capability.

CPSU Recommendation 25
The APS should aim to be an employer of choice for ICT workers by providing
distinct career pathways, structured learning and development programs, and
appropriate classification and remuneration scales embedded in enterprise
agreements.

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CPSU Recommendation 26
Agencies should undertake standard SFIA mapping and gap analysis.

CPSU Recommendation 27
Where additional remuneration is required to attract and retain ICT staff, this should
be provided through transparent group payments provided in enterprise agreements
rather than IFAs.

CPSU Recommendation 28
There should be improved access to training for ICT employees to develop
professional skills and career opportunities.

CPSU Recommendation 29
Agencies should pay for professional memberships and certifications such as for the
Australian Computing Society.

CPSU Recommendation 30
Agencies should adopt a deliberate strategy to advertise ICT positions across all
regions to be performed at any location.

CPSU Recommendation 31
Work Level Standards across the APS should accommodate technical ICT specialists
at EL1 and EL2 level to provide a career path to more senior roles without having to
take on managerial responsibilities.

CPSU Recommendation 32
Below EL1 level, ICT employees should be able to progress through an ICT
broadband.

CPSU Recommendation 33
Broadbands should be utilised to attract and retain APS lawyers and support their
career development.

CPSU Recommendation 34
The legal broadband and classification scheme should extend to all roles that
require legal education and skills, including legal policy and legislative roles.

CPSU Recommendation 35
Agencies should actively support in-house lawyers to play a role in litigation
preparation.

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CPSU Recommendation 36
Enterprise agreements should provide science broadbands to support attraction and
retention.

CPSU Recommendation 37
A scientific professional stream should be examined, similar to work already
underway for HR, Data and Digital professionals. The UK Government Science and
Engineering network could be examined as a model.

CPSU Recommendation 38
There should be greater opportunities for Government Scientists to maintain
their standing in the broader scientific community, with the APS facilitating
the publication of papers and providing opportunities to attend and present at
conferences.

CPSU Recommendation 39
There should be greater consistency in the length of, and opportunities for
advancement within graduate programs.

CPSU Recommendation 40
There should be more consistent use of training broadbands up to the APS6 level to
allow for advancement following the graduate programs as graduates develop their
skills and work more independently.

CPSU Recommendation 41
Greater detail about the above mechanisms should be included in enterprise
agreements to ensure consistency in their use.

CPSU Recommendation 42
The specialist stream graduate programs should be continued where they exist
and expand these into more areas – for example consistent use of legal and policy
graduate programs with cross agency training programs.

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