Sacked NSW public servant pockets $800,000 compo

A NSW public servant who was sacked for ‘no stated reason’ six weeks after a positive performance review from the Premier will pocket more than $800,000 in compensation.

Rodd Staples. Picture: AAP

A leading NSW public servant sacked for “no stated reason” six weeks after a positive performance review will pocket more than $800,000 in compensation.

Former Transport for NSW secretary Rodd Staples will receive $837,584 after the Berejik­lian government terminated his employment without providing a reason in November last year.

In a letter to Mr Staples on Nov­ember 17, Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Tim Reardon provided little detail about why the government had decided to “terminate” the veteran bureaucrat’s employment after a 15-year career.

Mr Staples left Transport for NSW days after the Sydney Morning Herald reported the department had paid three times as much as the Valuer-General’s estimate for a parcel of contaminated land in Sydney’s west.

“I appreciate this may be a difficult time for you,” Mr Reardon wrote. “You will be provided with an outplacement package to support your career transition outside of the NSW public sector.”

Section 41 of the Government Sector Employment Act allows for executives to be terminated “at any time, for any or no stated reason and without notice”.

Mr Staples will finish at Transport for NSW on February 21, three months after Transport Minister Andrew Constance announced he would leave his role.

In response to the letter, Mr Staples said he accepted the government’s decision to terminate his employment, despite an “above satisfactory” performance. “My documented performance, including my recent performance review with the Premier, has been above satisfactory with no performance issues raised,” he wrote to Mr Reardon.

“I accept this termination on the basis that there will be no negative formal or informal statements made about my performance and its relationship to my termination.”

A spokesman for Premier Gladys Berejiklian said: “This was a decision made by the Transport Minister, who has responsibility for Transport for NSW.”

Mr Staples is entitled to a $436,225 termination payout before tax, $170,604 in recreation leave and $230,754 in long service leave — $837,000 in total.

“It has been a privilege to work in NSW government since I joined in 2005,” Mr Staples said in the letter to Mr Reardon on Nov­ember 17. “I acknowledge the wonderful opportunities that have been afforded me during this time, and am proud of the personal contribution I have made to making NSW a better place to live, work and play.”

Daniel Mookhey, Labor’s finance spokesman, on Monday said Mr Staples’s termination “reeks of an internal powerplay at taxpayers’ expense”.

“To fire a respected public servant like Rodd Staples for no reason is an arrogant act that risks the delivery of every transport project meant to create jobs,” Mr Mookhey said.