Liberals push for action on bullying
Another news story from Canberra based Journalist Noel Towell at the Canberra Times
Liberals push for action on bullying
- Date
- December 5, 2012
Noel Towell
The Coalition has demanded the federal Labor government intervene over continued allegations of bullying at the CSIRO.
ACT Liberal Senator Gary Humphries and his Tasmanian colleague, Eric Abetz, said on Tuesday that either the Science Minister or the Workplace Relations Minister needed to ”stamp” on what the Liberal senators alleged was a ”culture of bullying” at the science and research organisation.
Fairfax Media revealed on Monday that Commonwealth workplace safety authority Comcare had issued an ”improvement notice” in June to the CSIRO, instructing that its responses to bullying, misconduct, workplace conflict, psychological stress or injuries were not good enough.
The notice came after years of allegations of a toxic workplace culture at CSIRO, which employs about 6600 staff in 50 locations around Australia and overseas. CSIRO confirmed on Monday it had received the notice and was willing to comply.
But the Coalition senators said ministerial intervention was needed.
”We are concerned with the culture of bullying that has been exposed in the CSIRO,” Senator Abetz said.
”The CSIRO employs 6600 of our fellow Australians, there has been a clear culture of bullying that we have sought to expose at Senate estimates.
”We now have Comcare willing to intervene with a second notice to the CSIRO, telling them to get their house in order.
”The current Minister for Science is none other than Senator Chris Evans, the previous workplace relations minister.
”One would have thought that between Senator Evans and (Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten) there would have been somebody in the Labor government willing to stamp on this issue within the CSIRO.
”What we’re calling for today is for a minister to step up to the plate and tell the CSIRO to get their house in order and drive the reform that is so desperately needed.” Asked if ”heads would roll” at CSIRO under a Coalition government, Senator Abetz said the culture would change.
”Sophie Mirabella, our shadow minister for science, has been outspoken on this, she has indicated she totally rejects that culture of buying,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Senator Evans said the minister had been briefed on the matter.
”He has been assured the concerns are being treated very seriously and is confident CSIRO will continue to comply with the Comcare improvement notice,” the spokeswoman said.
Senator Humphries widened the attack, accusing the Gillard Labor government of a ”disorganised and erratic” approach to public sector management. ”The CSIRO is a very important national institution and is very important to Canberra. This culture of workplace bullying that we have seen a light shone on today, much is wrong in the CSIRO as well as in other major workplaces around Canberra,” Senator Humphries said.
”It concerns me that we’re seeing this breakdown in the culture of the public service as public servants try to deal with this disorganised and erratic administration of the public service.”
Victims of Bullying, Harassment, and Victimisation in the CSIRO 
Part of the reason for all the trouble within CSIRO is the organisational structure.
The CSIRO engine room is the 100+ themes that, in essence, operate as an “Organisation” within the organisation. These sub-organisations have control over HR, legal, Coms, etc and they have their own budget and their unique culture (and trust me the culture is very, very, different).
This is a sensible structure if you need to quickly close a non performing unit but when you are dealing with a systemic issue such as bulling it’s very difficult.
Also, it makes me slightly sick to know that some of these “sub-organisation” and their leaders (BU’s and Themes) are splashing tax payers $$ on things that could and should be cut when times are tough, like they are now. Right now Corporate BD will fly 15-20 people to Melbourne to have a “Christmas Meeting” (read party) and eat, drink and play lawn ball (paid by their budget) whilst other parts of the organisation, will be getting rid of people. Indeed the public service in general is cutting to THE BONE.
Something is completely wrong here and CSIRO will have to seriously look at their Org. structure !
Dave
December 4, 2012
Thanks Dave
It is particularly sickening to see millions of dollars wasted on funding legal defences for those guilty of the grossest misconduct, when those who have been bullied and victimised are facing eviction because they are unable to pay their bills.
Government agencies tend to take advantage of their particular financial status, unnecessarily dragging out legal or other procedural matters in an attempt to disadvantage the plaintiff.
It would be a horrible shock to find out exactly how much Government agencies spend on such tactics.
Administrator
December 5, 2012