Department of Human Services staff placed on ‘attendance plans’ to manage sickies

THE public sector union has advised sickie-prone bureaucrats they do not have to sign “attendance plans” used to coax them back to work.

DHS staff took more than two weeks of unscheduled leave on average last year, compared with 11.5 days for the typical public sector employee.

THE public sector union has advised sickie-prone staff at the Department of Human Services that they do not have to sign so-called “attendance plans” used to manage unscheduled personal leave.

Staff at DHS, the federal government’s largest department, took an average of 14.7 days of unscheduled leave in 2015-16, a figure that held steady on the previous year despite the overall rate across the public service declining.

According to the Australian Public Service Commission, unscheduled absence rates across the entire public sector declined by an average of 45 minutes per employee in 2015-16, from 11.6 to 11.5 days per employee.

It was the first time unscheduled absence rates decreased since 2011-12, the result of a “marginal” drop in the sick leave rate. “Similar to previous years, there is variation between agencies of different sizes,” the APSC says. “Large agencies tended to have higher unscheduled absence rates compared to medium or small agencies.”

The Royal Australian Mint came out on top with 19.1 days per employee, followed by the National Health and Medical Research Council with 18.3 days, and Aboriginal Hostels Limited with 16.1 days.

In a bulletin sent in late April, the Community and Public Sector Union urged members to “know your rights”. “We are aware that DHS use attendance plans to ‘manage’ unplanned personal leave,” the CPSU said.

“You do not have to disclose personal information such as an illness. DHS cannot take adverse action against you if you used personal leave legitimately. Attendance plans or support plans are not in your enterprise agreement and you don’t have to sign a plan.”

While the union said it “may be legitimate for the Department to ask questions about personal leave usage where they suspect there is a problem, such as inappropriate usage”, it warned that “first and foremost the Department must protect your privacy”.

The fact sheet includes questions members can ask their manager during any attendance plan discussion, including “Am I required to give you personal details about the nature of my illness and/or personal matter?”, “Do you have any reason to suspect that I have been using my personal leave inappropriately?” and “Am I being reprimanded for accessing my personal leave?”.

CPSU deputy national president Lisa Newman said the union had provided “clear guidance to our hardworking members in the Department of Human Services because of ongoing concerns in how their bosses deal with legitimate sick leave”.

“Instead of increasing permanent staffing numbers to help cope with the demanding workload DHS bosses are aggressively and unfairly targeting staff whose unplanned leave is entirely reasonable,” Ms Newman said.

“Staff do fall sick and sometimes need to be at home to care for sick children and the like. Management would do far more to reduce absences in DHS by treating their staff as human beings.”

She described DHS as an “agency in crisis”. “Years of job cuts in DHS have driven a disastrous drop in service standards,” she said.

“Our members are struggling to cope with a workload that for many is becoming impossible to deal with. A growing number of frustrated customers are being aggressive and in some cases even violent. It should be no surprise that people are more prone to sickness in such as stressful workplace.

“People working in DHS across Medicare, Centrelink and Child Support are absolutely committed to their work helping the community and understand there must be processes in place to ensure leave is taken appropriately. We’ve repeatedly offered to work with management to find a fair solution, but they’ve declined our offer.”

DHS general manager Hank Jongen said the department takes the health and wellbeing of its employees very seriously.

“The use of attendance plans is one of a suite of tools used by the department to support managers to work collaboratively with staff to maintain a positive attendance culture and reduce unscheduled absences,” he said in a statement to news.com.au.

“The department does not mandate the use of attendance plans and does not centrally collect data on their usage. Anecdotal evidence indicates, however, that the use of attendance plans can help staff, particularly when they are returning to work as a result of illness.”

Mr Jongen said attendance plans were designed to assist employees to increase their level of attendance at work.

“The plans focus on the employee’s current situation, factors impacting on attendance, support options available and an agreement on actions to help the employee increase their attendance,” he said.

A report from the Australian National Audit Office released last month criticised public service performance management processes as “ineffective”. According to the report, senior bureaucrats were offering up redundancies and other incentives to retire rather than dealing with underperformance.

The ANAO found employees undergoing performance management would often take sick leave as an “avoidance technique”. “From the manager’s and agency’s perspective, this results in a drawn-out, complex process with difficult judgments to be made about how to best to progress the case,” the report said.

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Originally published as Department of Human Services staff placed on ‘attendance plans’ to manage sickies