Indigenous employees and staff with disabilities are among those worst affected by job insecurity within the ACT public service, the main public sector union says.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Thursday the government's employment committee held public hearings for an ongoing inquiry into the use of "insecure" working arrangements within the territory.
Insecure work, or non-ongoing employment, refers to the use of casual or temporary working arrangements such as the use of contractors or labour hire staff.
The Community and Public Sector Union's national president, Alistair Waters, told the inquiry job insecurity within the ACT public service was a "critical issue".
He was particularly scathing of the government's use of third-party labour hire arrangements, which he said cost more to taxpayers while offering workers worse conditions.
"On the question of labour hire, we say it should be eradicated in the ACT public service," he said.
"This is an area where a clear change to government policy and practice is critical."
The CPSU outlined the extent of public sector job insecurity in a previous submission to the inquiry, with approximately 23.3 per cent of territory public servants believed to employed on a non-ongoing basis.
Indigenous employees, staff with disabilities and female staff were among the groups most affected, the submission found.
"Of particular concern are the higher rates of non-ongoing employment amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, employees with a disability and culturally and linguistically diverse employees.
"Employees in the ACT public service also experience insecurity in their employment through the use of acting positions.
"We found through our CPSU What Women Want 2015-16 survey that 12.6 per cent of women respondents in the ACT public service were acting in their current position."
In comparison, the combined rate of all staff "acting" in senior positions was 8.9 per cent.
The inquiry also heard from Legal Aid ACT, who had previously used its submission to describe how job insecurity was "extremely detrimental" to families on low incomes and other vulnerable groups.
"Insecure work that nets employees' low or irregular pay, offers unpredictable working hours and little or no entitlements, reduces employee capacity to build and maintain a secure and happy lifestyle," Legal Aid's submission read.
"As few providers of insecure work are willing to offer opportunities for education, training, or up-skilling, employees are effectively denied the opportunity to progress into secure, permanent positions."
Legal Aid ACT chief executive Dr John Boersig told the inquiry that a uniform national approach was needed to properly regulate issues around insecure work.
He also stressed that not all temporary or casual contracts should be thought of as "insecure".
"There's a whole range of employers. Some are quite unscrupulous, but there are also some employers, perhaps small businesses, who aren't aware of their responsibilities."
Master Builders ACT gave the inquiry a different perspective on the issue, saying insecure working arrangements were not an issue within the booming construction industry.
"For the construction industry in particular, at the moment the majority of employees in the industry receive well above award rates," Master Builders ACT chief executive Michael Hopkins said.
"Current laws are adequate to ensure secure work is provided in the ACT."
Master Builders said the construction sector was actually experiencing labour shortages due to the strong demand for skilled workers.
The ACT government has one more round of hearings on the topic planned next week, with the employment committee due to present its report by the end of October.
