Page 3938 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 2011
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ACT public service dedicate themselves to the service of their community and to the support of their colleagues. The very few who do not do this are to be condemned, and such behaviour needs to be dealt with appropriately. Part of how we do that is to offer support and praise to those hardworking officials who model a supportive, positive approach to work.
Fostering a positive culture involves training and development, building shared expectations of behaviour and providing support to managers and staff. The government and the ACT public service leadership already have in place frameworks for maintaining a positive workplace culture. Under the Work Safety Act 2008, employers must take all reasonably practical steps to eliminate or minimise the harm from risks to health and safety of their workers. Inappropriate behaviour is one such health and safety risk. Employers must therefore ensure that they have done everything they reasonably can do to eliminate or minimise the effects of this kind of behaviour. Failure to manage this kind of behaviour could constitute a breach of the act and could have serious repercussions.
In that context we certainly welcome the role played by the Work Safety Commissioner in supporting the head of service and the directors-general of the various directorates across the ACT public service in ensuring that ACT public service workplaces are safe in all regards.
Under the national harmonisation of work safety laws, which are subject to consideration by jurisdictional parliaments, the ACT public service will, for the first time, be subject to criminal sanctions for breaches of work safety. Senior officers with management responsibility within the ACT public service will also be subject to the due diligence duties requiring them to take steps to manage work, health and safety. Workers will also be subject to duties not to expose themselves or other people to risk at work.
In addition to establishing the respect, equity and diversity framework last year, the government, in consultation, I might add, with the Work Safety Council, developed a code of practice for preventing and responding to bullying at work. The government has also established the ACT public service workers compensation and work safety improvement program. It focuses on delivering a one-service approach to the care, recovery and support of injured workers, with a single strategy executed across the ACT public service. The plan is designed as a holistic approach to improving the health and return-to-work outcomes for the injured worker.
This improvement plan is a key component in the strategies currently being implemented across the ACT public service to improve the capacity, the capability, the performance, the operations and, importantly, the service delivery of the ACT public service. The plan will assist in helping workers unfortunate enough to suffer from workplace incidents to return to work. Importantly though, it will be supported by a properly formulated and comprehensive training program that will assist in equipping ACT public service managers to do their jobs better. This program will help them to manage difficult situations, to manage performance of their staff positively and productively and to assist in building a more positive culture within the ACT public service.
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