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The union representing public servants has written to Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, calling for the cap on public servant staff numbers to be removed in the upcoming federal budget. Community and Public Sector Union secretary Nadine Flood took the step of writing to the minister this week in a bid to ramp up focus on the issue in the weeks before budget night. The average staffing level (ASL) cap limits the number of employees in each government department, and the union blames the ceiling on staff numbers for the boom in contractors and labour hire across the public service. "The ASL cap is driving an increased use of contractors and labour hire, which is usually more expensive than directly employing staff," Ms Flood wrote. "Essential skills are being lost, and the capacity of the APS is being hollowed out, while valuable funding in a highly constrained budget environment is being wasted on expensive external providers. Agencies, even where they have the available budget, including new program funding, are being forced to avoid any direct employment of additional staff." Instead of capping the number of public service employees, the government should instead limit expenditure on contractors and consultants, the union said. "[Contractors] generally receive less pay, less training, have no job security, uncertain rosters and restricted access to conditions such as sick and holiday leave. They are often unable to provide the level of service that customers of government services needs because of less training, less systems access and delegations, and higher staff turnover," Ms Flood wrote. The letter points to the ongoing inquiry into the use of contractors and consultants, and "the lack of accountability and transparency" associated with increased use of non-public service employees by departments. Removing the cap on staff levels would be "win-win" for the government, Ms Flood said, although the letter acknowledged the low likelihood that the government would take up the suggestion. "We know that you have previously stated your opposition to such a decision but ask that you reconsider, given the growing evidence emerging from the JPCAA and other inquiries of the detrimental effects of this staffing cap," Ms Flood wrote. “I’ve written to Minister Matthias Cormann because the budget is fast approaching and time is running out to remove this cap that has hamstrung the Turnbull government and is hurting Commonwealth agencies and ordinary Australians who rely on the critical public services they provide,” Ms Flood said about the letter. A limit on the use of contractors is an ongoing campaign by the union, which included the call in its budget submission. Spending on contractors has ballooned in recent years, with Fairfax Media analysis showing spending has doubled in the past five years from $318 million to more than $730 million at the 18 largest public sector employers. The Australian Public Service Commission recently told the government inquiry into the use of contractors that it did not track numbers of contractors or consultants used by various departments. The government has ordered that government agencies and departments "cap" their average staffing levels in line with that experienced in 2006-07, the last year of the Howard government. In evidence given to the inquiry into contracting, the Public Service Commission said that in 2013 there were 166,139 public sector employees. In 2017, that number was 152,095.

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