Australia’s 160,000 federal public servants are set to be forced to work longer hours but their boss won’t accept any new work after 4pm each day.
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Internal documents from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in Canberra show that Ian Watt, the department’s boss and the nation’s most senior bureaucrat, has told staff there will be a 4pm lockout at his office.
The edict, issued in September 2012, instructs PM&C staffers that no new “items for action” were to cross Mr Watt’s desk after 4pm.
The order, heavily redacted by departmental officials, was part of a cache of documents released by the department under freedom-of-information laws.
“As of Tuesday, 25 September 2012, there will be a daily cutoff for any items to be provided to the secretary for action,” the order reads.
“No items will be accepted after 4pm unless agreed in advance with [redacted] or [redacted].
“If you have any questions please give the secretary’s office a call."
The Canberra Times revealed last month that the Commonwealth’s rank-and-file public servants were facing a new attack on their traditional 7½-hour working day.
But it is unclear if the edict about Mr Watt’s desk is still in force.
PM&C’s media and publicity unit did not respond to repeated requests for comment, nor would it confirm if it would follow the lead of other departments and demand longer working hours from its staff in return for annual pay rises.
“The department is developing its enterprise bargaining position and is unable to comment,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.
The Abbott government has ordered that there will be no pay rises in this year’s round of wage talks for the bureaucracy without “genuine productivity offsets” such as longer working hours.
Unions are furious, arguing their public service members are already working extra hours to plug the gaps left by the thousands of job cuts.
Workers are also unhappy that Mr Watt will get a $42,000 wage rise in July taking his annual wage to $844,000, plus perks.
The Commonwealth's 17 other top departmental bosses, who have been ordered to take a hard line in the pay negotiations with their workers, get pay rises of more than 5 per cent, worth tens of thousands of dollars each.
