Future of APS workplace agreements to be revealed

The review, which may trigger a major overhaul of the public service, was spearheaded by Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Martin Parkinson and begun by former PM Malcolm Turnbull.

While the specifics of its recommendations remain unclear, the report is expected to be handed into the PMO in the next week, including the details regarding what was previously called a move to common pay, or uniform pay and conditions across the more than 100 enterprise bargaining agreements across the APS.

Mr Thodey has also recently said the public service needed to improve the way it invested in its upcoming stars through better training and development programs, as well as address what he said was a capability gap.

Numerous agencies have in recent years been forced to contract more labour and expertise from consulting agencies as expertise within the departments - particularly in the policy development area - has decreased, at rising expense to the public purse.

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Mr Thodey has said he wants to see more and better training of promising young APS staff, who may yet become the senior executives of the future.

While the review initially recommended a move to common pay, or harmonised workplace agreements, across the APS, Mr Thodey has since clarified that any such changes would be introduced incrementally over several years.

But the final report is likely to include recommendations detailing exactly what the uniform pay will look like for the APS, in an effort to address the long-running and problematic enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations in recent years.

The review, according to Mr Thodey's interim report, is also likely to recommend changes that may help bring disparate departments together, in a bid to battle the "siloed" approach to policy and service delivery and divisions across the public service.