Only about 11 Tax officials were sacked around Australia last year for "non-performance of duties" and another seven were fired for misconduct, but proposed changes to the ATO's enterprise agreement might see many more of its public servants shown the door.

Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan wants a fast-tracked procedure for employees alleged to be under-performers by replacing the current two-step performance counselling process with a one-step procedure.

The change would allow line mangers to quickly escalate to the process of obtaining the evidence to justify the termination of employment, according to one workplace union.

But an ATO spokesman denied on Monday that it was designing a fast-track-to-the-sack system, saying instead that its plans reflected a desire from its employees to see underperformance properly dealt with.

There is evidence that the Tax Office has already adopted a get-tough policy with workplace slackers, with the 11 officials it sacked in 2015-2016 for non-performance an increase of nearly 6-fold on the previous year.

Across 150,000-strong Australian Public Service, 76 employees were sacked in the 2015-2016 financial year for underperformance" according to the latest data from the Australian Public Service Commission with another 60 fired for misconduct.

In 2014-2015, 64 underperformers were shown the door and another 57 public servants were sacked for misconduct.

Now, as part of its marathon enterprise bargaining process, the Tax Office is pushing a stripped-down version of underperformance protocols, that would allow managers to get serious much more quickly.

Under the present rules, a manger needs to "consider the issues" before help is offered to the public servant to improve their performance.

Then there might be role clarification, training or some other form of support which could all be included in a performance improvement plan.

An underperformer might also be offered alternative duties before their workplace problems are escalated and even then they have the right of appeal if they do not believe they have been fairly treated.

But under the proposed new deal, a manager must simply have a discussion with a worker about their efforts and if they fail to lift their game in a reasonable period of time, then "underperformance measures may commence."

But the spokesman said the new proposal is consistent with the current system.

"Consistent with both the current and proposed enterprise agreement, the Commissioner is keen to ensure underperformance is appropriately managed," he said.
"Our employees have repeatedly stated in feedback that they see management of underperformance as a key role for our managers.

"We want to ensure that our managers are equipped to do this, and that the expectations of how underperformance will be managed are outlined in our enterprise agreement.

"The proposed agreement reflects the policy under the current agreement and there are no plans to change how underperformance is managed under the agreement."

But the Australian Services Union says it believes there is a concerted push to increase the number of non-performance sackings.

"The ASU's intelligence has revealed Commissioner Jordan is concerned that not enough tax officers are being sacked on grounds of under-performance," union official Jeff Lapidos told members in a bulletin.