Public service review recommends demotion of incompetent managers

A review of Queensland’s public service has recommended 99 changes, including making it easier to demote incompetent managers and appoint good workers to permanent roles.

CHANGES to the public service should make it easier to demote incompetent managers and temporary and casual workers should be made permanent unless there’s a compelling reason not to, according to a government review.
The Palaszczuk Government has finally released Peter Bridgman’s long-awaited review of Queensland’s state employment laws that make 99 recommendations for their overhaul.

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Among his findings was a recurring theme around the lack of professional and personal development in the public service and the unwillingness or inability of some managers to address poor performance.

The review recommends chief executives have the power to address issues with a manger who is not managing adequately, from requiring them to undergo training and development, to removing their management responsibilities or demoting them to a non-managerial level.

The Palaszczuk Government is considering 99 recommendations for an overhaul of public service employment laws. Picture: AAP/Dan Peled

“An employee should bear responsibility for their work performance and it is recommended that the Act make that point,” Mr Bridgman wrote.
“Managers should have explicit responsibility to work with subordinates on developing their careers and sustaining and lifting performance including development opportunities.”
But it said there often were no consequences if employees did not undergo professional development and managers did not follow through.
“Management skills did not spontaneously emerge on appointment but are acquired through experience and learning,” he said.
“It is not uncommon for people to be promoted to management roles because they are good at the technical content of their more junior jobs.
“Excellence in writing briefs, teaching, project management, delivering frontline health services or navigating complex policy through stakeholders is not necessarily a predictor of excellence in managing others.”

Peter Bridgman found whistleblowers in the public service were too often treated as “troublemakers”.

He also found that there was a poor understanding of public servant’s very serious obligations to raise public interest concerns – also known as whistleblowing – and people who raised valid issues were too often treated as “troublemakers”.

Unions complained to Mr Bridgman of an overuse of temporary employments contracts.
He has recommended that temporary and casual employees should be given the right to request permanency after one year on continuous employment and annually thereafter, with the chief executive required to give detailed reasons for a refusal, with review by the Public Service Commissioner.

And a Special Commissioner for Equity and Diversity should be appointed to see the hiring of a more inclusive public service, including ensuring senior executive positions can be done under job share arrangements to remove barriers for people who want to job share, work part time, or take parental leave.
Mr Bridgman said the public service was known as secure employment, but that should not “lead to fossilisation”.
“There are significant problems and issues about the employment laws and practices that need resolution for a fair, responsive and inclusive public sector,” Mr Bridgman wrote.
“The system is long overdue for maintenance and repair.”
A spokesman for the State Government said it had formed a committee to consult on the recommendations.