Services Australia is being dragged to the Fair Work Commission by the main public sector union over claims it hasn't followed new laws that require it to offer casual staff a pathway to permanent jobs.
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The Community and Public Sector Union alleged the large service delivery agency had not made genuine attempts to comply with laws introduced in March forcing employers to offer long-term casual staff opportunities to gain permanent employment.
Under the laws, medium and large businesses must offer casual employees a conversion to jobs after 12 months of consistent work, or defend why it should not. Small businesses are exempt from the requirement, but employees are given the right to request it.
Workers who are declared permanent will not be able to "double dip" and claim the lost entitlements for their time on casual wages.
The agency, of which nearly 10 per cent of its 30,000 staff are on casual contracts, allegedly told the union its casual staff were not covered under the amended legislation but later conceded they did.
Meetings held between the agency and union failed to devise a suitable process that would provide employees hired prior to late March a solution by September 27.
In response, the union filed an application with the industrial umpire on Tuesday to seek assurance the agency would work to developing the process.
National president Alistair Waters said the agency's actions so far had shown it had no interest in working to the September deadline.
"It looks as though Services Australia has no intention of offering any casual employee permanency," Mr Waters said.
"It intends to conduct a 'tick and flick' assessment instead of doing the right thing and creating pathways to permanency for its very large casual workforce.
"This is wrong, the government needs to look after its own workforce."
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Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen responded the agency would comply with the casual conversion laws and issue existing casual employees with information from the Fair Work Ombudsman ahead of the September date.
"The agency runs regular recruitment rounds for ongoing and non-ongoing employment and it is open to casual employees to apply in those recruitment rounds," Mr Jongen said.
It would not make any further comment as the case was before the workplace tribunal.
It comes as call centre staff at Services Australia alleged earlier this month tough bathroom break restrictions handed down by management were being policed so heavily, many resorted to skipping toilet trips during shifts altogether.
The complaints levelled at management detail micromanaging and tough policy of staff movements restricting them to just "screen-based breaks".
Staff alleged they'd been told breaks should be restricted to a maximum of five minutes each hour and not taken within an hour of a lunch break or meeting.
It's also alleged staff were verbally told if toilet trips can't be restricted to five minutes, they shouldn't be taken at all.
The union warned this additional pressure could result in overworked staff, especially with recent outbreaks occurring in Melbourne and Sydney.
Federal budget papers published in May revealed Services Australia would lose 800 staff next year.
"It is clear that Services Australia middle management have an inordinate amount of pressure to deliver services to the Australia public with not enough staff," Mr Waters said.