Section 11 – Internal mobility, resignation and management of excess employees

Internal mobility

1. Where an employee is offered a permanent or temporary move within Treasury, the current manager should enable the release of the employee to the new area as soon as reasonably practicable, typically no more than 4 weeks or as otherwise agreed.

Resignation

1. An employee may resign from their employment by giving the Secretary at least 14 calendar days’ notice.
2. At the instigation of the Secretary, the resignation may take effect at an earlier date within the notice period. In such cases, the employee will receive paid compensation in lieu of the notice period which is not worked.
3. The Secretary has the discretion to agree to a shorter period of notice or waive the requirement to give notice.

Payment on death of an employee

1. When an employee dies, or the Secretary has directed that an employee is presumed to have died on a particular date, subject to any legal requirements, the Secretary must authorise payments to the partner, dependants or legal representative of the former employee, the amount to which the former employee would have been entitled had they ceased employment through resignation or retirement, or where legislation provides specifically for amounts calculated based on the death of the employee, those amounts. If payment has not been made within a year of the former employee’s death, it should be made to their legal representative.

Management of excess employees

Application

1. The following redeployment, retirement and redundancy provisions will apply to ongoing employees who are excess to the needs of Treasury.

Definition of ‘excess’

1. An employee is excess if:
   1. the employee is included in a class of employees, which class comprises a greater number of employees than is necessary for the efficient and economical working of Treasury;
   2. the services of the employee cannot be effectively used because of technological or other changes in the work methods of Treasury or changes in the nature, extent or organisation of the functions of Treasury; or
   3. where the duties usually performed by the employee are to be performed at a different locality, the employee is not willing to perform duties at the locality and the Secretary has determined that these provisions will apply to that employee.

Process

1. If the Secretary identifies an employee as excess, the Secretary will inform the employee they are excess. The Secretary will hold discussions with the excess employee and, if the employee chooses, with a representative nominated by the employee, to consider any of the following options:
   1. Redeployment at the employee’s current classification level within Treasury or the APS. Treasury may use the services of an external placement organisation to assist in the process of redeployment and the provision of retraining services.
   2. Reduction of the employee’s substantive classification and reassignment of duties on redeployment pursuant to clause 468 of this agreement.
   3. Transfer of another employee to the position occupied by the excess employee (a ‘swap’) and the former employee immediately accepting retirement pursuant to clause 450.4. This clause is subject to the Secretary being satisfied that the excess employee can, with reasonable training, effectively replace the employee accepting retirement.
   4. Termination of the employee’s employment (referred to elsewhere in this clause as redundancy) under section 29 of the Public Service Act 1999, with entitlements pursuant to clauses 457 to 459 of this agreement. An offer of redundancy can be made to an excess employee during a redeployment period.

Provision of information

1. An excess employee will be entitled to have access to information in relation to:
   1. the sums of money the employee would receive by way of severance pay, pay in lieu of notice and paid up leave credits;
   2. the amount of accumulated superannuation contributions;
   3. the options open to the employee concerning superannuation; and
   4. the taxation rules applicable to the various payments.

Decision by the Secretary

1. Following the discussions and consideration referred to in clause 450 the Secretary may decide to take action specified in that clause in relation to an excess employee.
2. If the Secretary decides that an excess employee should be offered voluntary redundancy, the Secretary may invite the employee in writing to accept an offer of voluntary redundancy.

Timeframes

1. If it is determined that clause 450.1 should apply, then the period during which time the employee and Treasury will actively seek a suitable vacancy for the excess employee will be two months. The Secretary may determine that it is in the interests of Treasury or the APS to extend the redeployment period.
2. An employee who is made an offer of redundancy pursuant to clauses 452 and 453 must either accept or decline the offer, in writing to the Secretary not before 7 days and not later than 21 days after the making of the offer and after receiving the information in clause 451 unless the Secretary agrees to an extension of the period of the offer.

Involuntary redundancy

1. If the excess employee situation has not been resolved at the end of the period referred to in clauses 454 and 455 through the options set out in clause 450, the Secretary may terminate the employee’s employment under section 29 of the Public Service Act 1999, by giving notice in accordance with clauses 465 to 467. The entitlements in clauses 457 to 459 will apply.

Entitlement

1. An excess employee whose employment is terminated by redundancy pursuant to clauses 450.4 or 456 will be entitled to be paid redundancy pay of a sum equal to 2 weeks salary for each completed year of continuous service, plus a pro‑rata payment for completed months of service since the last completed year of service unless the NES entitles the employee to a higher rate. In that case, the rate under the NES applies.
2. The minimum sum payable as redundancy pay on termination will be 4 weeks’ salary and the maximum will be 48 weeks’ salary.
3. Redundancy pay will be calculated on a pro‑rata basis where the employee has worked part‑time hours during the period of service and the employee has less than 24 years’ full‑time service.

Service for redundancy pay purposes

1. Subject to clauses 461 and 462, for the purpose of calculating entitlements in accordance with clauses 457 to 459 ‘service’ means:
   1. service in an APS agency;
   2. government service as defined in section 10 of the Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1976;
   3. service with the Commonwealth (other than service with a joint Commonwealth State body or a body corporate in which the Commonwealth does not have a controlling interest) which is recognised for long service leave purposes;
   4. service with the Australian Defence Forces; and
   5. service in another organisation where:
      1. an employee was transferred from that organisation with a transfer of function; or
      2. an employee engaged by that organisation on work connected with the function is engaged as a result of the transfer of that function to the APS and such service is recognised for long service leave purposes.

Service not to count as service for redundancy pay purposes

1. Any period of service which ceased in any of the following ways will not count as service for redundancy pay purposes:
   1. retrenchment;
   2. retirement on grounds of invalidity;
   3. termination of probation;
   4. ‘voluntary’ retirement at or above the minimum retiring age applicable to the employee or with the payment of an employer financed retirement benefit; or
   5. termination of employment for:
      1. misconduct or a breach of the APS Code of Conduct;
      2. non‑performance or unsatisfactory performance of duties;
      3. failure to meet a condition of employment imposed at engagement;
      4. inability to perform duties because of a physical or mental incapacity;
      5. loss of an essential qualification; or
      6. failure to complete an entry level training course.
2. Absences from duty that do not count as service for long service leave purposes will not count as service for redundancy pay purposes.

Earlier periods of service

1. For earlier periods of service to count, there must be no breaks between the periods except where the break in service is less than one month and occurs where an offer of employment with the new employer was made and accepted by the employee before ceasing employment with the preceding employer.

Rate of payment — redundancy pay

1. For the purposes of calculating any payment under clauses 457 to 459 and clause 468, ‘salary’ will include:
   1. the employee’s full‑time base salary, adjusted on a pro‑rata basis for periods of part‑time service;
   2. other allowances in the nature of salary which have been paid during periods of annual leave and on a regular basis and which are not reimbursement for expenses incurred or payment for disabilities associated with the performance of a duty; and
   3. salary payments where the employee has been temporarily assigned duties at a higher classification or at a higher level within a broadband for a continuous period of at least 12 months immediately preceding the date on which the employee is given notice of termination.

Period of notice — termination

1. Where an excess eligible employee is terminated, the period of notice will be 4 weeks. In the case of an employee over 45 years of age with at least 5 years’ continuous service the period of notice will be 5 weeks. Where the Secretary and the employee agree to a termination date within the notice period, the employee’s employment will terminate on that date. The employee will be paid compensation in lieu of notice for the unexpired portion of the notice period. The payments an employee would have received in respect of the ordinary time the employee would have worked during the period of notice, had the employment not been terminated, will be used in calculating any payment in lieu of notice.
2. An employee will be entitled to reasonable time off with full pay to attend necessary employment interviews, from the date the period of notice commences.
3. Where expenses to attend interviews are not met by the prospective employer, the employee will be entitled to reasonable travel and incidental expenses incurred.

Reduction in classification

1. Where the Secretary proposes to reduce an excess employee’s classification, pursuant to clauses 450 to 456, either:
   1. the employee will be given the same period of notice as the employee would have been entitled to receive pursuant to clauses 465 to 467; or
   2. Treasury may pay an amount to maintain the level of salary received by the employee at the date of notice of reduction in classification for the number of weeks of notice still owing. Such payments will be calculated in accordance with clauses 457 to 459.