Tax Office staff are having their performance measured against the amount of money paid back by taxpayers in debt to the government, in a move that has drawn fire from a union for its public servants.
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The Australian Services Union representing tax officials has lashed the benchmark as "unfair and unreasonable" to staff making payment plans with people owing unpaid taxes, saying its public servants had no control over the payments afterwards.
The Australian Taxation Office defended the measure, saying the agency had used it for several years to monitor the success of payment plans arranged by tax officials with people in debt, and that it was one of many performance indicators used.
ASU official Jeff Lapidos said the ATO was assessing tax officials from its 1,600-strong debt unit on plans that have failed for reasons beyond their control.
"I can guarantee you that in the area of debt, there are 10,000 reasons," he said.
ATO staff arranging payment plans with taxpayers could not monitor the payments later, Mr Lapidos said.
"You're assessing people's individual performance according to something they've got no control over," he said.
"You can only assess staff performance according to what they are asked to do."
The ASU told its members the ATO's debt business line appeared to have ventured into "unreasonable territory".
"This strikes the ASU's leadership as an unfair and unreasonable method of assessing individual officers' performance and also creates risks for the [Tax] Office, given staff have a new imperative to ensure payment arrangements are met."
An ATO spokeswoman said the measure showed debt unit staff whether they were making payment plans with the right terms, including payment amounts and instalments.
She said the ATO used it as one performance indicator among many for debt unit staff.
"These are established measures that help us understand the effectiveness of our decision-making when granting payment plans," the agency said.
The ASU learnt of the measure when the Tax Office scrapped a fixed performance benchmark for staff making payment plans with taxpayers, and replaced it with another adjusted to the type of debt owed.
"This helps the performance of our staff to be measured in a tailored way and gives them a greater understanding of their contribution," the ATO said.
The Tax Office also monitors debt unit staff performance directly through supervisors, and with a channel of complaints made by taxpayers owing money to the government.
Its relations with staff drew national attention last month after a memo released under freedom of information laws showed tax officials had been told to dob in colleagues who were taking long lunches, wasting time eating breakfast or reading newspapers at work.
ATO chief information officer Ramez Katf later backed the memo, saying its public servants didn't want to be left with more than their fair share of work, while the ASU called it a "witch hunt" that diminished trust between bosses and staff.
