Mr McClelland asked the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service upon notice, on 27 May 1998:

(1) Is he able to say how many persons who were previously employed by the Australian Public Service on a full-time basis are employed by agencies which have subcontracted their services to the Commonwealth

(2) Have the persons referred to in part (1) retained continuity of employment benefits.

(3) Has the Government guaranteed the employment entitlements of the employees in the event of their current employer becoming insolvent; if not, will the Government do so.

Dr Kemp (Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs;Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) No, the APS does not maintain Service-wide statistics on the post-separation employment of persons who leave the APS.

(2) There are currently two approaches for handling the staffing implications of outsourcing in the APS—the Clean Break approach and the Phased approach. The decision about which approach will be adopted is a matter for the outsourcing agency.

Under the Phased approach, provisions are included in the contract which requires the new provider of the outsourced function to meet its additional staffing requirements initially from the pool of staff affected by the outsourcing decision. The outsourcing agency is expected to enter into negotiations with the new provider about employment opportunities for existing APS staff and about the terms and conditions of employment. APS staff who wish to take up employment with the new provider are expected to resign from the APS to do so.

Under the Clean Break approach, the staff currently performing the function are dealt with under the relevant redeployment and retirement arrangements in operation in the agency. The recruitment of staff to perform the function after it is outsourced is left solely to the contractor, who may negotiate directly with staff of the outsourcing agency about future employment prospects and terms and conditions of employment that might apply. There are no restrictions on the future employment of such staff with the contractor. Under the Clean Break approach, the outsourcing agency is precluded from entering into negotiations with the contractor about jobs and/or terms and conditions of employment for staff leaving the APS.

(3) There are no guaranteed employment entitlements for an employee who accepts voluntary retrenchment from the APS and is subsequently successful in obtaining employment with a private sector firm which provides services to the Commonwealth, in the event that the new provider becomes insolvent.