Shadow Treasurer Rob Lucas said today that some public servants had been allowed to accumulate up to 109 days annual leave without being required to take their leave.
This is yet another example of the waste and financial mismanagement of the Weatherill Government which not only increases costs but also potentially impacts on the health and productivity of public servants.
After 10 months only 4 of the 14 Weatherill Government Ministers have responded to questions asked in Parliament. These answers show that as of 30 June 2014 the employee with the highest number of days of accumulated annual leave were:
Department Accumulated annual leave (days)
DCSI 109
DPC 91
DMITRE 88
DEFEEST 60
Clearly some ministers and Departments are not enforcing policies which require public servants to take their annual leave when it becomes due. This increases costs to taxpayers as leave which is accumulated at a lower salary level is ultimately paid out at a higher salary level due to salary increases and/or promotions.
It is also well accepted that employees’ health, well-being and productivity is impacted by taking leave on a regular basis.
The fact that so many Ministers have refused to answer these questions raises concerns that even further examples of mismanagement are being concealed.
This sort of waste and financial mismanagement would not be accepted in any well run private sector scrutiny and it should not be accepted in the public sector. It is time for Premier Weatherill and Treasurer Koutsantonis to take action.
“There are also management issues relating to long service leave with some employees having an accrued entitlement of up to 468 days at an estimated cost of $521k,” said Mr Lucas.
“Whilst employees cannot be forced to take their long service leave it certainly would make sense if employees were encouraged to take their long service leave rather than accumulate all of it until the end of their working lives.”