Toot-toot … Ferry man leaves the wharf … All aboard with new staff … Old timers walk the plank … Industrial turmoil at the federal courts as new bosun comes on board 

Moy came on board at the court in May 2016 and since then there’s been quite of bit of mov’n ‘n shak’n.

The new “culture” man hailed from a job at Sydney Ferries and before that at the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. His task at the court is to “harmonise” the backend fusion of the Federal Court, the Family Court, the Federal Circus Court and the National Native Title Tribunal. 

The upshot is that HR staff have either rushed for the door, taken redundancy or have not seen their contracts renewed. 

In many instances the departed have replaced by colleagues that Darrin and his colleague Catherine Sullivan have brought in from Sydney Ferries or the Harbour Trust. Sullivan is the courts executive director of corporate services and also came from the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. 

Initially Darrin was on a 12 months contract, that was not subject to an advertised selection exercise, and engaged on a salary package above the normal band. He applied for the new permanent position as head of “people, culture and communications” but his appointment has not yet been announced. 

The job carries a base salary of $200,000 plus 15.4 percent superannuation. He was engaged at this rate when he came on last year, pending his application for the permanent position. The job is classified as Federal Court manager, level 2 non-legal – for which the maximum pay in that caregory is far less. 

So far staffing numbers in other teams at the courts’ corporate services – communications, finance, IT, property and facilities – have been less seriously affected by the backend changes. One source says the turnover in these areas has been less than 10 percent. 

For instance, among the new recruits is a manager level 2 on a base salary of $180,000 and a number are on manager level one with base salaries between $120,000 and $130,000. 

For the Federal, Family and Circuit courts there are now a total of 18 highly-paid executives drawing an averaged total of over $2 million a year in salaries. 

There are a further 10 highly paid non-executive staff, drawing down an averaged total of $1.7 million a year in pay. 

These salaries are being paid while the rest of the courts’ 1,200 staff haven’t had a pay rise since 2013, not one cent. 

The Canberra Times reported that 90 percent of Federal Court staff voted to reject a proposed new enterprise agreement which was at half the wage rise offered to public servants in other Commonwealth departments. 

There were asked to accept an offer that averaged one percent for each of the agreement’s three years. The agreement also proposed cuts to conditions and entitlements and, for some, longer working weeks. 

Other departments such as Defence, the ATO, Agriculture, the CSIRO and PM & C all accepted two percent increases for each of three years. 

There was a courts’ staff turnout of 81 percent for the vote. 

Now, six weeks later, Moy has come back to the table with nothing other than more of his hard-line attitude. 

Management has threatened, during recent negotiations, that it has the option to terminate the existing enterprise agreements. 

This would mean that every single clause would need to be negotiated back into the “new” agreement. Maybe it’s another stalling ploy. No other government agency has ever made such a threat, even after four years of difficult negotiations.

The majority of government agencies has now managed to negotiate outcomes acceptable to staff and much better than what is currently on offer at the Federal, Family and Federal Circuit courts. And yes, staff morale is at an all-time low. 

All a bit awkward when the Federal Court’s jurisdiction extends to industrial law. 

Last year, Justinian reported that Darrin in his enterprise bargaining update to staff had plagiarised part of an article in the Qantas magazine written by the airline’s CEO Alan Joyce.