NSW Public service workers paid $10,000 of your money to quit their jobs

By Linda Silmalis From: The Sunday Telegraph July 17, 2011 12:00AM

NSW  Premier Barry O'Farrell says staff who accept the deal have one month to quit. Picture: Brad Hunter. Source: The Sunday Telegraph

• Government hands out $1.4miilion in handouts
• Hundreds of public servants knock back cash offer
• Premier says axing jobs will save $16m a year

A STATE Government has handed almost 150 public servants a bonus of $10,000 each to quit and get a real job.

The $1.4 million worth of handouts are on top of their usual entitlements.

Astonishingly, a further 250 "unattached" public servants - some being paid $100,000 a year to do nothing - have knocked back NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell's generous $10,000 payout offer.

A TAFE worker, who has been pulling a wage for 16 years despite not actually having a job to do, and two RTA workers without a position for a decade are among the state employees refusing to take the handouts to quietly get off the state's books.

Taxpayers are paying $16 million in wages each year to 390 public servants on the notorious "unattached list" - those who have had their positions axed but, incredibly, have held on to their jobs because the previous state government refused to order any forced redundancies.

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More than 140 bureaucrats - including 28 earning more than $100,000 a year - have accepted the $10,000 bonus, in addition to their normal entitlements, and quit.
Those who do not accept the cash incentive before the end of the week will be given three months to find a job or have severance payments cut.

A legacy of the previous government's "no forced redundancies" policy, the list allowed staff whose positions had been cut to remain on full salary even if they no longer had a job to do.

But figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph revealed only 142 departmental officials had accepted the offer since it was announced last month - at a cost of $1.4 million.

The payouts come on top of those staff's regular redundancy packages, estimated to be worth $12.5 million, but Mr O'Farrell said axing the list would ultimately save the government $16 million a year.

Under the offer, which expires on Friday, staff who accept the payment have one month to quit.Of staff who have taken up the cash incentive offer, 28 are on salaries of over $100,000.

Another 105 are earning between $50,000 and $100,000. The longest time spent on the list by a staffer taking up the offer is 6.4 years.

Another seven departing public servants have been on the list for more than five years, while 35 have been displaced for two to five years.

The figures show 54 employees taking up the offer have been on the list for less than a year.

A government source said many staff were still hoping to find a permanent role before choosing to accept the offer.

Mr O'Farrell said staff failing to accept by Friday risked missing out on more than the incentive payment.

"It is no longer an option for public servants to be without a job indefinitely and be paid indefinitely," he said.

NSW isn't the only state to offer a generous redundancy deal.

In May, the Queesland State Government offered more than 3000 public servants a lucrative taxpayer-funded golden handshake of up to 90 weeks' pay under controversial cuts costing $250 million.

NSW Public service workers paid $10,000 of your money to quit their jobs | News.com.au