The government will consider whether to forgive hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt owed by ambulance workers, after it was found to have breached workplace laws through mistaken overpayments and inaccurate leave advice.
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A systemic failing in keeping tabs on leave entitlements owed to ACT Ambulance Service staff occurred over four years between 2008 and 2012. The mistakes meant 65ambulance workers were overpaid an average of $6083 in leave, with the lowest amount $18 and the highest $56,586.
The government continued publishing inflated leave balances on workers’ pay slipsfor more than two years after it became aware that the system was failing in August 2009.
Authorities have since tried to claw back the money from the workers, despite the fact that ambulance workers had taken the leave based on inaccurate advice from their employer.
The Transport Workers’ Union – which represent ambulance staff – sent a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman late last year, alleging the government had breached the Fair Work Act and was now trying to recover the overpaid money.
That prompted an investigation, which confirmed the ACT government had breached its obligations to comply with statutory record-keeping procedures for four years between October 2008 and August 2012.
But the government has escaped litigation, which the Fair Work Ombudsman said was ‘‘not in the public interest’’, instead receiving only a letter of caution.
The Ombudsman has put the government on notice, and will conduct an inspection of its employee records within the next year to check whether they are compliant.
Treasurer Andrew Barr said on Wednesday the government would look at whether to let the overpayments slide.
‘‘I’ll have some further discussions with [Emergency Services] Minister [Simon] Corbell and look at the capacity within his directorate to meet those costs, or as to whether that will require a treasurer’s advance,’’ Mr Barr said.
Opposition Treasury and Emergency Services spokesman Brendan Smyth said the error was not the fault of the ambulance workers. He said the blame fell squarely at the feet of Mr Corbell.
‘‘It’s the minister who has failed here to ensure that the department adheres to the laws,’’ he said.
Mr Smyth said it was reasonable for those with minor amounts of debt to be forgiven, but urged the government to negotiate non-burdensome repayment schedules for others.
The Ombudsman’s investigation – which involved the ACT Ambulance Service, Justice and Community Safety, Shared Services, and ACT Government Payroll – did not find that the error was deliberate.
But the Ombudsman did criticise the government’s decision to continue publishing leave balances on employees’ pay slips, despite knowing there was a high likelihood they were wrong and too high.
This was described as ‘‘unsafe’’ and potentially in breach of workplace law.
TWU sub-branch secretary Klaus Pinkas welcomed the report, saying it confirmed that the system had failed.
Mr Pinkas said that, in some cases, officers were given leave associated with child birth, only to return and find they were in debt because they did not have the proper leave entitlements.
‘‘These debts have been subsequently worn by the government, but we believe this precedent should apply to all ambulance officers,’’ he said.
‘‘Put simply, if an officer accessed leave on the advice of the expert and incurred a debt then the government should live with it.’’
He said the report had given the TWU the evidence it needed to resolve the matter with Mr Corbell once and for all.
