The AEC effectively manages and develops employees to deliver electoral events and services through the AEC’s training and performance management programs.

Terms and conditions of employment

At 30 June 2019 the AEC had a regular workforce of 840 APS employees. Fourteen APS staff identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

Employees are also engaged to work on election events. A breakdown of APS ongoing, non ongoing and casual staff by classification and a list of statutory appointments is at appendix H.

Table 2: AEC APS workforce by employment type and classification
(excluding statutory office holders), 30 June 2019

Detailed workforce statistics are available at appendix H.

Most AEC staff are covered by the AEC Enterprise Agreement 2016–2019 published on the AEC website. This outlines salaries and conditions of employment. Under the agreement, staff receive a range of non-salary benefits.

The AEC supports employees with caring responsibilities as outlined in the Carer Recognition Act 2010. Employees are eligible for paid personal leave (carer’s) under the agreement.

The Electoral Commissioner may agree to individual flexibility arrangements with employees, which can vary the effect of the terms of the AEC Enterprise Agreement 2016–2019. The Electoral Commissioner agreed to 16 new individual flexibility arrangements during the year, with 22 of these still active at 30 June 2019.

The AEC also has a collective determination for staff engaged under section 35(1) of the Electoral Act. Set by the Electoral Commissioner, this determination covers temporary staff such as polling officials (election period only), and was reviewed for the 2019 federal election.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were encouraged to apply for employment as part of the temporary election workforce. The AEC’s Indigenous Employment Strategy resulted in 1,922 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders filling positions at the 2019 federal election. This represents 1.94 per cent of the total number of polling official positions at the election, and is a modest increase of 0.17 per cent at the 2016 federal election.

Performance pay

The agreement requires all employees engaged under section 22(2) of the Public Service Act 1999 to participate in the AEC’s Performance Management Program. Eligible employees who meet the requirements receive salary advancement. The AEC does not provide performance bonuses.

Terms and conditions of SES employees

In 2018–19 the terms and conditions of employment of 11 employees— predominantly senior executive service officers—were set by individual determinations. Individual determinations are set by the Electoral Commissioner under section 24(1) of the Public Service Act 1999.

The Remuneration Tribunal determines the remuneration of the Electoral Commissioner, Deputy Electoral Commissioner and Australian Electoral Officers under the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973. Details of executive remuneration are published on the AEC and Remuneration Tribunal websites. For full disclosure of remuneration see appendix H.

Disability reporting mechanisms

The AEC provides a variety of education and communication initiatives to meet the needs of Australians with disability. These are reported through the National Disability Strategy 2010–2020 and the State of the Service report.

Since 1994 non-corporate Commonwealth entities have reported on their performance as policy adviser, purchaser, employer, regulator and provider under the Commonwealth Disability Strategy. In 2007–08 reporting on the employer role was transferred to the Australian Public Service Commission’s State of the Service reports and the APS Statistical Bulletin. These reports are available at www.apsc.gov.au

Entities have not been required to report on these functions since 2010–11.

The Commonwealth Disability Strategy has been overtaken by the National Disability Strategy 2010–2020. This sets out a 10-year national policy framework to improve the lives of people with disability, promote participation and create a more inclusive society. A high-level, two-yearly report will track progress against each of the six outcome areas of the strategy, and present a picture of how people with disability are faring. The first of these progress reports was published in 2014 and can be found at www.dss.gov.au

Workforce planning

The AEC develops workforce strategies to reduce identified risks for both day-to-day operations and delivery of electoral events.

Workforce planning is done at three levels – divisional, state and branch, and agency wide. It is informed by operational plans, business plans and the corporate plan.

To improve workforce planning the AEC increasingly uses business intelligence and data to support decision-making and service delivery.

Work health and safety

As part of its compliance obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 and the Guidelines for Rehabilitation Authorities 2012, the AEC has the following systems to monitor, evaluate and maintain health, safety and welfare:

• our Rehabilitation Management System which meets Comcare’s Guidelines for Rehabilitation Authorities 2012 under section 41 of the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
• further refinement of our work health and safety management system AECsafety
• an electronic incident management system
• ongoing revision of the AEC risk management framework

There were 594 health and safety incidents reported this year, compared with 175 last year. A spike of 381 incidents of the total 594 reported occurred in May. This is attributed to the federal election on 18 May, and the engagement of a temporary election workforce—of around 90,000 people—for the federal election.

The AEC takes a proactive approach to workplace health, safety and rehabilitation. During the 2019 federal election extra systems were put in place to monitor, evaluate and maintain health, safety and welfare across the AEC, including:

• a user-friendly system to encourage incident and hazard reporting
• contacting employees with pre-existing injuries or illnesses and providing election readiness letters so their general practitioners could confirm staff fitness to work during the intensified electoral event environment

Ongoing initiatives to monitor, evaluate and maintain health, safety and welfare across the AEC include:

• engaging workplace rehabilitation providers to help injured or ill employees to make a safe return to work
• promoting:
  • free annual influenza vaccinations for staff
  • the AEC’s early intervention program which supports employees injured at work, and helps reduce injury-related absenteeism
  • the AEC’s employee assistance program
  • ergonomic workstation assessments to prevent injury and to ensure pre-existing injuries are not aggravated

Claims management

Injury and illness claims increased in 2018–19 which reflects the engagement of a temporary election workforce of 90,000 people to deliver the federal election.

Fifteen incidents were reported to Comcare during the year. Nine were notifiable for serious injury or illness, and one was notifiable for a dangerous occurrence. Nine incidences were referred to Comcare for investigation and there was one liaison inspection.

The AEC did not conduct any injury or illness investigations during 2018–19.

At 30 June 2019, injury and illness claims consisted of:

• 37 continuing cases for compensation
• 14 new cases for compensation including three submitted by APS employees and 11 by temporary employees who were employed under the Electoral Act. Of these, Comcare accepted two claims.
• Comcare rejected five claims, two of which were re-submitted for reconsideration. One of these was subsequently rejected, while the other is pending determination. Four of the five claims were from employees engaged under the Electoral Act
• Seven claims are still pending, with none withdrawn

For more information see Table 3.

Table 3: New claims for compensable and non-compensable injuries

Developing people

The National Training and Education Unit (NTEU) leads and coordinates AEC training and education to build:

• critical operational and leadership capabilities that underpin election readiness
• a culture of compliance, electoral integrity and professionalism

In addition, 98.3 per cent of identified¹ staff undertook mandatory AEC e-learning courses. Professional development programs include:

• an Australian Electoral Office program—a targeted election induction and training initiative which focuses on the technical requirements for conducting elections in each state or territory. Twenty five staff undertook this program
• the Election Readiness Program— the AEC’s flagship professional development program for APS 6 and EL1 operational staff. Completed by 300 AEC staff, the 10-day residential program included simulation exercises to build critical operational and leadership capabilities
• the Election Experience Program—which provides AEC staff with little or no election experience an opportunity to build their knowledge and understanding by participating in an electoral event. Over 100 AEC staff completed this program.