CANBERRA: The Australian Taxation Office has admitted its working hours do not meet community expectations and are inefficient. Staff at the ATO have one of the shortest working weeks in Government but when they were asked to work an extra nine minutes a day to boost productivity, they responded with a backlash until the proposal was dropped. Documents obtained by the ABC under freedom of information laws reveal the push to extend working hours to 5:00pm — an extra 4.5 working days a year — proved “highly contentious” and was ultimately dropped to ease concerns.
ATO staff have finished work at 4:51pm for many years despite management acknowledging the roster is out-of-step with community expectations and the rest of the bureaucracy. The proposal would have improved productivity by 2 per cent and was made amid protracted workplace bargaining with unions that have now stretched into a third year. “Of all the changes proposed in the enterprise agreement (EA) package, this was the one you told us you disliked the most,” ATO briefing packs reveal. “It was clear from your feedback that this had to go and I think it goes a long way to demonstrating that we’re genuine about getting an EA in place for the next three years.” The largest union for Government workers — the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) — said the idea that ATO staff headed home en masse at 4:51pm was “ludicrous”. “Our members are working longer hours than ever, including unpaid overtime, because of over 4,000 jobs that have been slashed from the ATO in recent years,” CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said. “This proposal was taken off the table well over a year ago. “Clearly it wasn’t the sticking point to reaching a new agreement because there have been two more emphatic ‘no’ votes from Tax Office staff since.”
