The Australian Taxation Office has been accused of mishandling voluntary redundancies and redeployments for as many as 200 staff as it moves to close the government's valuation authority.
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In an application lodged with the Fair Work Commission on Sunday, the Australian Services Union said the ATO had not given employees of the Australian Valuation Office ''reasonable opportunities to be redeployed'' before staff are declared excess to requirements later this month.
The government announced plans to close the office in January. About 200 staff face redundancy or deployment inside their parent department, the ATO.
Despite being required by an enterprise agreement to facilitate so-called job swaps before making employees involuntarily redundant, the union said workers had been left to find their own swaps as all but about 20 on the current roster are made redundant by June 30.
Job swaps allow for staff in redundant positions to move to another role vacated by a colleague who has sought a voluntary redundancy.
Australian Services Union's tax officers organiser Jeff Lapidos said the ATO had not consulted with the union about how it will choose which employees are identified for redundancy, and the staff faced serious difficulty in finding opportunities to swap.
The application calls for no employees to be identified as excess to requirements before the ATO facilitates an adequate job swap process.
Staff seeking voluntary redundancies would not be affected by the application.
It also calls for adequate consultation with union representatives to resume.
Established in 1910, the Australian Valuation Office provides fee-for-service valuations to government departments.
Much of its work is assessing the value of property held by welfare and pension claimants.
The AVO has faced a fall in its revenue streams in recent years as business from the Department of Human Services, which runs Centrelink and the Child Support Agency, has slowed.
AVO workers were told in November by their boss Kath Quigley that although she hoped to be able to resurrect the income stream from the giant department, they should expect redundancies.
The AVO managed an after-tax surplus of $800,000 in the 2012-13 financial year from a budget of $34.7 million and was working on securing its future by offering services to the private sector.
The office's remaining work is expected to be taken over by private-sector valuers.
The closure, announced by parliamentary secretary to the Treasurer Steven Ciobo, will affect workers in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney as well as regional centres including Young, Bowral, Wagga Wagga, Lismore, Mildura and Port Lincoln.
''People have been left to find these swapping opportunities themselves, with all the complexity involved, when the agreement clearly says they will be facilitated,'' Mr Lapidos said.
''The second problem is they are not giving people enough time to be able to do the swapping process. It is a very difficult situation.''
The union has also raised concerns about cumbersome consultation periods for ATO staff considering voluntary redundancies before the end of May.
An ATO spokesperson said the department was supporting staff and meeting its obligations.
