The employment relationship between the government and public sector employees must be based on fairness. The Act contains recruitment and selection arrangements designed to provide fair and transparent processes when engaging employees, and system changes to ensure fair treatment of employees once engaged, including:
- arrangements to improve job security
- review mechanisms for employee performance and conduct
- review mechanisms for employee disputes.
Fairness in the employment relationship will also be demonstrated through commitment to equity and a culture of respect and inclusion.
Job security
The Act contains arrangements aimed at converting the employment status of non-permanent public sector employees to permanent employees.
Positive performance management
The Act establishes positive performance management principles to guide the management of all public sector employees, including:
- recognising obligations that apply to public sector managers, including their responsibility to help employees by supporting them to perform at their best
- recognising employee responsibilities to deliver quality outcomes
- ensuring public sector employees receive regular, constructive feedback on work performance and conduct.
Chief executives must ensure compliance with performance management principles before performance-based disciplinary action is taken.
Appeals
The Act provides a clear commitment to fairness in the employment relationship through appeal rights for public sector employees. Employees aggrieved by certain decisions affecting their employment can have them considered by an independent tribunal via the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.
Measuring and planning for equity
The Act includes measures to improve equity and diversity to ensure our workforce represents the varied views, experiences and backgrounds of the communities we serve.
Chief executives (as determined by the Act) must:
- promote, support and progress equality and diversity
- ensure people who are members of one or more diversity target groups (women, people with disability, Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples and those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds) can pursue careers and compete for recruitment, selection and promotion opportunities
- eliminate unlawful discrimination.
Under the Act chief executives (as determined by the Act) must also develop, publish and regularly review an equity and diversity plan with clear measures for improving equity and diversity.
Obligations to support a culture of respect and inclusion
The Act states that chief executives (as determined by the Act) are responsible for promoting and supporting a culture of respect and inclusion in their organisation. This means ensuring a culture where:
- employee experiences and perspectives (from target and non-target groups) are invited and respected
- employees feel safe in the workplace
- workplaces foster a culture of belonging
- employees are supported to work together to improve performance and wellbeing
- employees possess the skills, knowledge and access to systems necessary to manage employment matters in a respectful, safe and appropriate way.
The duty to support a culture of respect and inclusion must be reflected in an organisation’s training programs, policies and practices.
See Workplace inclusion and diversity for more information.