Impact of protracted bargaining on Department of Defence employee morale
Dear Department of Defence,
I understand negotiations for a new enterprise agreement for non-SES staff have progressed extremely slowly over the last 2 years.
As a taxpayer I am concerned any 'savings' from deliberate government delays are having a negative impact on employee morale which in turn would negatively impact the productivity of the department as a whole.
I am seeking the following documents in this FOI:
1. All documents which address, or mention, the impact of prolonged bargaining on employee morale. This includes all impact, whether actual, perceived, anticipated, or otherwise.
2. Documents which describe how employee morale has been measured over time, covering a period of at least the last 2 years.
3. All documents which detail the estimated productivity losses resulting from prolonged bargaining and/or decreased employee morale.
Yours faithfully,
Ato Nduvho
UNCLASSIFIED
Good morning
Thank you for your email. Your email has been forwarded for consideration/action.
Kind regards
FOI Operations
[email address]
(02) 6266 2200
http://www.defence.gov.au/foi/
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Nduvho,
Thank you for forwarding your FOI inquiry relating to the impact of
protracted bargaining on Defence employee morale. Your request was
registered on receipt as FOI 052/16/17.
The action area have asked for clarification of Item 3 of your request, in
particular could you please provide further information regarding what you
mean by 'productivity losses'. Were you seeking something specific with
this Item.
While we seek clarification of your request it has been placed on hold. I
look forward to receiving your clarification so that we can continue
processing your request.
Should you have any queries about this matter, please do not hesitate to
contact me.
Kind regards
Theresa Stinson
Assistant Director - Media Case Management
Freedom of Information
Governance and Reform Division
Building F065
Level 2 - 057
Gallipoli Barracks
ENOGGERA QLD 4051
Ph: (07) 3332 6359
Alternative email: [1][email address]
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Dear Ms Stinson
Thank you for your email.
I don't have anything specific in mind with regard to 'productivity losses'.
I am seeking to identify any broad impacts of prolonged bargaining on the department, including any impact on productivity within the organisation, however 'productivity' may be defined within the department.
Please let me know if any further clarification is required.
Yours sincerely,
Ato Nduvho
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Nduvho
1. I refer to your email of 18 August 2016 in which you
requested access, under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), to:
“I am seeking the following documents in this FOI:
1. All documents which address, or mention, the impact of prolonged
bargaining on employee morale. This includes all impact, whether actual,
perceived, anticipated, or otherwise.
2. Documents which describe how employee morale has been measured over
time, covering a period of at least the last 2 years.
3. All documents which detail the estimated productivity losses resulting
from prolonged bargaining and/or decreased employee morale.”
Intention to refuse request
2. I am writing to inform you that I believe the work
involved in processing your request in its current form would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of Defence from its
other operations. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ (see section
24AA of the FOI Act).
3. Accordingly, I intend to refuse access to the documents
you have requested. However, before I make a final decision to do this,
you have an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request
consultation process’, as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You
have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Scope of Request
4. Upon receipt of your request, our office undertook
inquiries with the Defence People Group within Defence in relation to the
documents you are seeking. As a result of those inquiries our office has
determined that the scope of your request, in its current form, is
considered too broad to be processed and would therefore attract a
practical refusal under section 24AA of the FOI Act.
5. With few exceptions, it would simply not be possible for
any responsible officer of the agency, to certify that we have identified
every copy of every single communication in the Department’s possession,
which falls within Item 3 of the scope of your request, without conducting
a search of every, hard copy or electronic file and all individuals’
electronic communication records in Department/AD. For Defence to find
each document as mentioned above would be an unnecessary use of resources
as it would constitute a significant drain on the resources of the areas
involved and would have an unreasonable, substantial and adverse effect on
the ability of those areas to conduct their normal business and in fact
would make it virtually impossible for the affected areas to carry out
their normal functions.
Consultation
6. Consequently, in accordance with section 24AB of the FOI
Act, Defence is required to consult with you advising of the intention to
refuse access to your request in its current form. In accordance with
paragraph 24AB(2)(c) of the FOI Act, I am the nominated the person with
whom you should contact with a view of agreeing to one of the following
options:
a. withdraw your request;
b. revise your request; or
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise your request.
Searches undertaken
7. On 26 August 2016 we sought clarification from you to Item
3 of the request, specifically the term “productivity losses”. In your
response you indicated that you were seeking the broad impacts of
prolonged bargaining on the department. To date around 680 pages of
documents have been retrieved as matching the scope of your request. Some
of these documents are in the form of accumulative reports, in which case
you may like to also consider revising these down to the most recent
reports.
8. You should note that, in accordance with section 24AB(9)
of the FOI Act, Defence is only required to undertake the above
consultation process once, and that you are required to contact me within
14 days of receipt of this notice. Accordingly, if you do not contact me
by 20 September 2016, or an additional period of time is not agreed, your
request will be withdrawn. Should you require further time to respond,
please contact me to discuss.
Further Information
9. Should you have any queries about this matter please do not
hesitate to contact me on the details below.
Regards
Matt Ashauer
Case Manager
Freedom of Information
Information Management and Access
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence
CP1-06-005
PO Box 7910 Canberra ACT 2610
(02) 6266 2096
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
Dear Mr Ashauer
Thank you for response.
I confirm a revision of scope. Please exclude Item 3 from the scope of this request.
Yours sincerely,
Ato Nduvho
UNCLASSIFIED
Thank you Mr Nduvho,
I have referred your revised scope to the action area for consideration. I will be in touch to discuss once I receive guidance.
Regards
Matt Ashauer
Case Manager
Freedom of Information
Information Management and Access
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence
CP1-06-005
PO Box 7910 Canberra ACT 2610
(02) 6266 2096
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914. If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Nduvho
I refer to your correspondence dated, 18 August 2016, in which you sought
access, under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), to:
“I am seeking the following documents in this FOI:
1. All documents which address, or mention, the impact of prolonged
bargaining on employee morale. This includes all impact, whether actual,
perceived, anticipated, or otherwise.
2. Documents which describe how employee morale has been measured over
time, covering a period of at least the last 2 years.
3. All documents which detail the estimated productivity losses resulting
from prolonged bargaining and/or decreased employee morale.”
Revised scope
On 6 September 2016, you were advised that your request was to broad.
Following further discussion you agreed to proceed with the following
revised scope:
“1. All documents which address, or mention, the impact of prolonged
bargaining on employee morale. This includes all impact, whether actual,
perceived, anticipated, or otherwise.
2. Documents which describe how employee morale has been measured over
time, covering a period of at least the last 2 years.”
This scope is now being processed.
The Department excludes personal email addresses, signatures, PMKeys
numbers and mobile telephone numbers, contained in documents that fall
within the scope of a FOI request unless you specifically request such
details. Defence also excludes duplicates of documents.
If you do require these personal details, please inform us within five
days of receipt of this email so that the decision maker can consider your
request.
On 8 September 2016, Mrs Theresa Stinson, Assistant Director FOI, decided
that there are no charges associated with processing your request.
Accordingly, the statutory deadline for you to receive a response to your
request expires on 30 September 2016.
Should you have any questions relating to your request, please do not
hesitate to contact our office via telephone on (02) 6266 2200 or via
email to [1][email address].
Yours sincerely
Matt Ashauer
Case Manager
Freedom of Information
Information Management and Access
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence
CP1-06-005
PO Box 7910 Canberra ACT 2610
(02) 6266 2096
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
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UNCLASSIFIED
Good morning
1. The purpose of this email is to provide you with the
decision on your request.
2. The statement of reasons and schedule of documents
detailing the Accredited Decision Maker’s decision is at Attachment 1. The
documents in the form approved for release are at Attachment 2.
3. In summary, the Accredited Decision Maker decided to:
a. release three documents in full;
b. partially release one document in accordance with section
22(1)(a)(ii) [access to edited copies with exempt or irrelevant
matter deleted] of the FOI Act, on the grounds that the deleted
material is considered exempt under section 47F [public interest
conditional exemptions-personal privacy] of the FOI Act;
c. remove irrelevant material as referred to in the scope of the request
in accordance with section 22(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI Act.
FOI Disclosure Log
4. In accordance with the requirements of section 11C of
the FOI Act, Defence is required to publish details of information
released under the FOI Act. Defence publishes identified documents
relating to requests within five working days of receipt by the applicant.
Defence will also publish this decision notice with privacy deletions.
This request will be published on 7 October 2016.
Rights of Review
5. Under the provisions of section 54 of the FOI Act,
you are entitled to request a review of this decision. Your review rights
are detailed at Attachment 3.
6. Should you have any questions in regard to this
matter please contact this office.
Kind regards,
Matt Ashauer
Case Manager
Freedom of Information
Information Management and Access
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence
CP1-06-005
PO Box 7910 Canberra ACT 2610
(02) 6266 2096
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
UNCLASSIFIED
Good morning
1. The purpose of this email is to provide you with the
decision on your request.
2. The statement of reasons and schedule of documents
detailing the Accredited Decision Maker’s decision is at Attachment 1. The
documents in the form approved for release are at Attachment 2.
3. In summary, the Accredited Decision Maker decided to:
a. release three documents in full;
b. partially release one document in accordance with section
22(1)(a)(ii) [access to edited copies with exempt or irrelevant
matter deleted] of the FOI Act, on the grounds that the deleted
material is considered exempt under section 47F [public interest
conditional exemptions-personal privacy] of the FOI Act;
c. remove irrelevant material as referred to in the scope of the request
in accordance with section 22(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI Act.
FOI Disclosure Log
4. In accordance with the requirements of section 11C of
the FOI Act, Defence is required to publish details of information
released under the FOI Act. Defence publishes identified documents
relating to requests within five working days of receipt by the applicant.
Defence will also publish this decision notice with privacy deletions.
This request will be published on 7 October 2016.
Rights of Review
5. Under the provisions of section 54 of the FOI Act,
you are entitled to request a review of this decision. Your review rights
are detailed at Attachment 3.
6. Should you have any questions in regard to this
matter please contact this office.
Kind regards,
Matt Ashauer
Case Manager
Freedom of Information
Information Management and Access
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence
CP1-06-005
PO Box 7910 Canberra ACT 2610
(02) 6266 2096
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.