More than 3200 casual, temporary public servants now permanent staff

Thousands of casual and temporary Queensland public servants have been reclassified as permanent staff under new laws designed to give greater job security. WHERE THEY WORK

More than 3200 public servants have been reclassified as permanent staff under laws to give the state’s bureaucrats greater job security.

The majority were health workers and education staff, although workers from all but one department benefited from changes to the Public Service Act that now allow workers to ask to be converted to permanent roles once they’ve been working there for a year.

The Public Service Commission said 3240 people had successfully argued for conversion since the laws came into place in September 2020.

Workers from all but one Queensland Government department have secured permanet contracts following changes to the Public Service Act.

“It recognises that there are public servants who have been successfully fulfilling their jobs while employed on a temporary or casual basis,” a statement said.

“It must be noted that these are not new positions to the public service.

“In order to be considered for conversion to permanent employment, the agency is required to determine that there is an ongoing operational need for the position/work and that the employee satisfies merit requirements.”

The laws also enable workers acting in higher duties to request a permanent transfer to a higher position if they do the work for more than 12 months.

Unions had told the government that too many were on rolling, 12-month contracts and that bureaucrats were too afraid to give “frank and fearless” advice because of the perilous state of their jobs.

Plenty also couldn't get home loans because they couldn’t prove their jobs were ongoing.