Hundreds more public servants at the Immigration Department and Australian Border Force are set to lose their jobs as the department is hit with deep cuts to its budget this year.
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Between 300 and 800 jobs are set to be shed from the 13,800-strong workforce as its managers try to cope with a cut of $116 million – or nearly 5 per cent – to its budget this financial year.
The department confirmed on Tuesday it would reduce its workforce in response to the budget cuts, reducing its staffing "cap" by 305 down to 13,445 public servants.
The axe is due to fall first among Immigration's middle-management ranks, with voluntary redundancies to be offered by late October.
A freeze on hiring replacements for departing staff is expected to drive the rest of the required reductions.
But Community and Public Sector Union says the losses will be much larger than the department will admit. It says up to 800 jobs at all levels are threatened.
The union called the cuts "short-sighted" and at odds with government rhetoric on "border protection".
A departmental spokesman confirmed on Tuesday the cuts were to go ahead.
"The department expects to offer a limited number of voluntary redundancies to executive-level employees," he said.
"The final number of offers will be determined through further budget and workforce planning.
"The move is a result of a reduction in the department's budget for 2016-17 by 4.5 per cent or $116 million and a subsequent year-on-year reduction in the department's average staffing level cap by 305 to 13,445.
"The department anticipates making voluntary redundancy offers from late October 2016."
CPSU deputy national president Rupert Evans was scathing of the decision to further reduce the department's size.
"Hundreds of highly trained and committed Immigration and Border Force are facing the sack and the Turnbull government's short-sighted budget cuts are directly responsible.
"This is a bitter blow to these workers, who have families to support and who deserve better."
Mr Evans said the department's workforce was being slashed while its workload continued to increase and become more complex.
"It would be bad enough if the department was having to do the same work with fewer staff, but the situation is far worse," the union official said.
"The government's budget cuts are forcing DIBP to sack workers as the department's workload continues to grow rapidly.
"There's already well over 1000 fewer staff across the department than there were in 2012-13.
"In the same period the number of international passengers has grown by 3.6 million, there's an extra 2.8 million visas being processed, half a million more pieces of cargo to be inspected and more than nine million more pieces of international mail and parcels to be checked, and terrorism risks have risen."
