The public service commission has urged agency bosses to be flexible and consider worker safety in responding to COVID, as new figures reveal thousands of cases are hitting federal workplaces.
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New advice to Australian Public Service employers on Wednesday also abandons previous Coalition-era guidance pushing for staff to resume their usual workplaces.
The new COVID guidance for federal employers is the first since Labor won government, and coincides with recent surveys showing new COVID cases topping 3000 a fortnight in the APS.
Federal public servants have reported nearly 43,000 infections in total, up from 12,200 when the first Omicron wave hit the nation and case numbers surged inside the public service by February.
New advice from the Australian Public Service Commission - released ahead of a predicted new surge in cases - urges departments and agencies to make timely decisions for the safety of employees, while also delivering services.
"Agency heads should be mindful of their obligations as employers, including all relevant workplace health and safety obligations. This includes that all reasonable precautions are taken in line with public health and other advice in relation to those employees required to attend their usual place of work," the new circular said.
"Where a state or territory public health agency is providing advice that is not binding but provides a best practice approach, agencies should pay careful attention and consider adopting this approach.
"Given the emergence of new COVID-19 variants, and fluctuations in cases, agencies should remain flexible in responding and adapting to changes in such advice."
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The APS commission advised agency heads to consider public health advice in deciding on work from home arrangements for staff.
"In relation to flexible working arrangements, agency heads must consider the individual circumstances of employees and the epidemiological environment. This should include an assessment of risk and controls," it said.
"Arrangements may be provided for cohorts of employees, or on a case-by-case."
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher on Wednesday said the updated advice reflected the current stage of the pandemic, and the requirements of the APS to protect the health of staff but also meet service delivery requirements to the community.
"It's important that agencies are prepared to meet the workforce challenges of a predicted increase in case numbers but we have seen throughout the pandemic that public servants, like many Australians, have successfully worked remotely," she said.
"Agencies will make decisions about how to manage their own workforces while taking into account health advice and service delivery requirements."
New figures, collected every fortnight by the public service commission, show public servants have reported thousands of new cases in the last three surveys.
Case numbers reached nearly 3100 in the fortnight ending July 1, compared to 2400 and 3050 in the previous two reporting periods.
COVID has swept through the public service since the Omicron variant emerged, driving up the number of cumulative COVID cases to nearly 43,000 on July 1, up from 37,000 in early June and nearly 600 in early December 2021. After the first Omicron wave, public servants reported a total of 12,200 cases by February.
Minister Gallagher asked the APS Commission to review its guidance to agencies in light of a predicted increase in COVID cases over coming weeks, as ACT health authorities warn case numbers will rise to 2000 or 3000 a day.
Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Melissa Donnelly welcomed the new public service commission guidance, saying it was an important step as cases in the ACT and around the country were set to surge.
She said it was just as important that agencies and departments did everything they could to create safer workplaces and put in place adequate control measures for vulnerable people.
"Some larger agencies like ATO, Defence, Services Australia, and NDIA, must take this opportunity to do more to protect vulnerable employees in workplaces and facilitate working from home where it is needed," she said.
"The CPSU is hopeful that following this circular, agencies will now take urgent action to protect employees with cases set to spike, and to ensure the APS can continue to deliver for the Australian community.
"As waves and case numbers continue to rise, it is vital that working from home stays as an important control measure to control the spread of COVID-19."
The commission's guidance for public sector bosses released during the first Omicron wave in January said that, "in principle", agency heads should seek to return employees to their usual place of work, as soon as it was safe to do so.
It also urged flexibility and said that working from home "may be a suitable option" for some workers as agencies took measures to keep employees safe from COVID.
The guidance followed calls from the CPSU for greater consistency in work-from-home arrangements across the federal bureaucracy, after several agencies delayed in sending their staff home earlier this year despite the Omicron surge in cases.
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