A gathering of hundreds of the department's workers near its southern Canberra headquarters on Monday heard that the brunt of the cuts will be felt in executive and senior executive ranks.

Any reductions at rank-and-file level would be confined to temporary workers, departmental Secretary Jane Halton, pictured, told the public servants gathered at Woden's Hellenic Club.

Fairfax Media revealed last week that the department was to shed about 400 jobs in the next year as it battles to introduce the Labor government's efficiency dividend.

On Tuesday, Fairfax Media reported that bosses in the department had shared $5.7 million in bonuses and incentive payments in 2010-2011 and similar figures were likely to be reported in 2012-13.

But Ms Halton has consistently said she wants to see fewer highly paid managers in the department compared with rank-and-file numbers and told the gathered employees on Monday there would be 14 fewer senior executives in the next year.

About 200 executives at levels one and two were also expected to go, the workers gathered at Woden were told, as well as 190 temps.

More than 4000 of the department's 5200-strong staff are based in Canberra and the cuts are expected to bite hardest in the capital.

A departmental spokeswoman said on Tuesday that workers had been kept in the picture about the looming cuts.

''Like every other government department the Department of Health and Ageing is required to rationalise its spending to meet government efficiency directives,'' she said.

''The department has been very upfront with staff about their employment, with the secretary outlining plans to achieve cost reductions.''

The spokeswoman said the cuts would result in one in 10 executives and senior executives leaving.

''The vast majority of staff reductions in the department will be at the executive and SES levels, a 10 per cent reduction,'' she said. ''Like every other department, the Department of Health and Ageing's number of SES staff is managed to a cap which is set by the APS [Australian Public Service] Commissioner.

''The department manages over $70 billion of expenditure for a range of complex health and hospital programs.''

Ms Halton told Monday's meeting the department could not revoke bonuses that were part of employment contracts but incentive payments were not guaranteed and had to be earned with good performance.

The spokeswoman said: ''The Department of Health and Ageing's average total remuneration for executive level and SES staff in 2011-12 was the same as the APS average''.

''This department has not rolled performance pay into base salaries where many other APS agencies have, and this component of remuneration is a payment that is not guaranteed but earned on performance.''