Purpose & Scope

The purpose of the guidelines is to:

• Provide guidance on mobility through assignment in the Public Service under the provisions of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013 (GSE Act), enabling movement of non-executive employees within a public service agency and of executives across all public service agencies to provide employee development opportunities and improved deployment of workforce resources to meet organisation needs; and
• Assist employers and employees to implement the new approach under the GSE Act which provides for an employee to be employed in a classification of work or an executive band, and then assigned, and subsequently assigned, to one or more roles in that classification of work or band.

Under the Government Sector Employment (GSE) legislative framework, the Public Service Commissioner may make GSE rules on specific matters relating to employment in the NSW Public Service. Priority rules on key matters to support the operation of the GSE Act from its commencement were issued by the Public Service Commissioner on 20 February 2014.

As the concept of assigning employees to roles is new in the NSW Public Service, the operation of assignment to roles, including temporary assignments, will be via these guidelines pending the issuing of rules relating to assignments, which may be made under section 36 and section 48 of the GSE Act. These guidelines represent the policy position and intended rules on assignments to roles and temporary assignments and are expressed accordingly. Agencies are encouraged to apply the guidelines with the same level of compliance as is required for the GSE rules.

Prior to making a final set of rules on assignment to role and temporary assignment, the Public Service Commission will seek feedback from agencies on the operation of the provisions in these guidelines. It is anticipated these rules will be issued in the first half of 2016.

The guidelines do not displace existing industrial instruments and should not be used in place of the Managing Excess Employees policy and the Agency Change Management guidelines.

Refer to the Glossary in Appendix 1 for an explanation of terms used regularly throughout these guidelines.

These guidelines outline the policy and procedures to be followed in implementing the Government Sector Employment provisions for movement by assignment of:

• Public Service non-executive employees within a Public Service agency
• Public Service senior executive employees within and between Public Service agencies

These movements may be made as either:

• an assignment or subsequent assignment to a role under GSE Act s38 (for senior executives) or s46 (for non-executives); or
• a temporary assignment under GSE Rule 11 (rule 11 applies to both senior executives and non-executives).

These guidelines do not include information on:

• movements of Public Service non-executive employees between government sector agencies, including between Public Service agencies (known as transfers or secondments under GSE Act s64).
• movements of Public Service senior executives between Public Service and non-Public Service government sector agencies (known as transfers or secondments under GSE Act s64).
• movements of Public Service senior executive and non-executive employees into other sectors, for example the Commonwealth Government, other state governments, the private sector, or the not-for-profit sector (known as temporary assignment between NSW government sector agencies and other relevant bodies under GSE Act s66).

Note

While GSE Act s64 and s66 could be used for senior executive movements between government sector agencies, the policy intent is that movements between Public Service agencies should be made as assignments under s38. The use of s66 should be limited to movements between the government sectors and a non-government sector body as defined in s 66(6) and s64 should be used for transfers and secondments between government sector (non-Public Service) agencies.

For information on transfers, secondments and temporary assignment of staff between NSW government sector agencies and other relevant bodies, refer to GSE Act s64 and 66, and Part 6 of the GSE Rules.