Australian Taxation Office releases tender for office changes, union concerned it signals 'difficult decisions' ahead

The tender, published last Thursday, shows the Australian Taxation Office is on the hunt for change-management consultants to deal with upcoming expiring leases for five offices in Sydney, Canberra and Hobart.

The changes will affect Canberra's two Civic offices, Sydney's city and Parramatta offices and the Hobart office, which all have leases due to finish within two-and-a-half years.

Building leases often end and external consultants are typically engaged to find a new home if the workforce has matured beyond the location.

But it's the obscurity of the documents and their language, which has the Australian Services Union's tax branch concerned it's spin.

Jeff Lapidos, the union's tax secretary, said the agency had consistently implemented big changes over the course of the last few decades and wondered what made this time so different it required assistance from the private sector.

"What is the ATO executive planning that it needs external specialists, spin doctors, to persuade ATO staff that it will be all right?" Mr Lapidos wrote in an email to members.

"It is only speculation, but could it be that the ATO intends to implement hot desking across the board in the new buildings and it knows this will be deeply unpopular, not only with the staff, but also with the SES?"

The agency told The Canberra Times the tender was put out "to design and deliver tailored change and transition programmes that support positive staff experiences through office accommodation changes".

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It added it did not have the internal resources or capacity to deliver the project with existing staff, which was the primary reason behind requiring external help.

While it admitted more than 6000 staff would be affected, it did not expect any jobs to be affected by the changes.

"The office accommodation changes are resulting from routine lease expiries and accommodation requirements are for existing staff levels," a spokesperson said.

"ATO jobs are not expected to be affected."

Figures provided to the union by the tax agency in November 2020 show Canberra's two city offices both have empty desks.

The Gnabra office on Genge Street has capacity for nearly 3000 workspaces while the Narellan Street office has a little more than 1200.

Of those workspaces at the Gnabra office, nearly 1000 are sub-let to the Department of Veterans' Affairs while 152 ATO desks remain vacant.

At the Narellan St office, 87 desks are not filled.

The agency has 2019 ongoing employees based in national offices in Canberra.

In the meantime, the union is on the hunt to find out more information about the future changes.

"We first need to find out what the office is planning," Mr Lapidos wrote to members.

"We have a few options to explore now we know the ATO executive has a very big agenda that it believes will be very controversial amongst staff.

"At the end of the day, even though it may not be desirable for a variety of reasons, and depending on how horrendous is their decision, we can consider whether widespread industrial action of some type or other is worthwhile."