11/8/17, 3(14 pm
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Federal courts exodus
Friday, August 11, 2017
Justinian in Court in the Act, Family Court, Federal Circuit Court, Federal Court
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 
Federal Court: Lubyanka HQ taking a tough line on the workers
THERE has been an exodus of Federal Court staff in the wake of the back office
shake-up engineered by the new HR Tsar, Darrin Moy, i.e. the "executive director of
people, culture and communications". 
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 some 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 carried a base salary of $200,000 plus 15.4 percent superannuation. He was
engaged at this rate when he came on last year, pending the application for the
permanent position. The job is classified as Federal Court manager, level 2 non-
legal. The maximum in the pay table for that classification is $129,018. 
Departures from the Federal Court HR team include: 
• The courts assistant HR director, a permanent employee who resigned in May
2017; 
• Two senior HR advisors, both permanent employees. One resigned in June
2016 and the other was made redundant in November 2016 while on sick leave; 
• A learning and development officer, a permanent employee, was made
redundant in March 2017. She was told after returning from maternity leave that
her request for part-time work had not been approved; 
• An HR assistant on contract, resigned in September 2016; and 
• An HR systems administrator was not renewed after her term ended.
Departures from the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court HR team
include: 
• The HR director, a permanent employee based in Canberra. She was made
redundant after being advised that she needs to be in Sydney; 
• The workforce & policy manager, a permanent employee who resigned when
the courts' functions merged; 
• The workplace relations specialist, a contract employee whose term ended;
• The learning and development officer, a permanent employee who resigned in
July 2017;
• The HR systems manager, a permanent employee who was made redundant in
March 2017 but continues working as a contractor; 
• The payroll & judicial services manager, a permanent employee, made
redundant in February 2017 during sick leave absence; 
• Three payroll advisers, one a permanent employee and two contractors. 
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. 
Members of the new hand-picked broom include:  
• Kathryn Hunter, replaces the previous CFO Peter Bowen, who was forced to
accept a redundancy under threats of performance management. She came from
Sydney Ferries and has been engaged at a manager level 2 classification. 
• Melanie Liu, finance executive officer, manager level 1. She came from the
Cancer Council where Catherine Sullivan also previously worked. 
• Larissa Minniecon, HR cultural officer. She previously previously worked to
Darrin as HR assistant at Sydney Ferries. She was placed on a 12 months
contract directly.
• Robyn Richards, senior project officer. She previously worked as the executive
assistant at Sydney Ferries. Robyn was given a six months contract directly, but
resigned after four months in late 2016.
• Debbie Price, assistant HR director. She previously worked to Darrin as HR
adviser at Sydney Ferries and was given a 12 months contract directly at the
court on a base salary above the normal pay band. 
• Linda Potter, assistant HR director. She is married to Wayne Potter, general
manager at Sydney ferries and is on a 12 months contract with the court having
been engaged directly on a salary package above the normal band. 
Many of these people who have been brought in on
individual flexible agreements with generous
conditions, while the courts' staff, including registrars
and registry officers are still fighting for a pay
increase. 
For instance, the top of the range found among the
new recruits is a manager level 2 on a base salary of
$180,000. A number are on manager level one with
base salaries between $120,000 and $130,000. 
There are 10 highly paid non-executive staff, drawing
down a total of $1.7 million in pay. 
These salaries are being paid while the rest of the
Moy: no new enterprise agreement
courts' 1,200 staff haven't had a pay rise since 2013,
not one cent.  
For the Federal, Family and Circuit courts 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 with a total annual averaged
pay of $1.7 million a year.
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.  
Article original y appeared on Justinian: Australian legal magazine. News on lawyers and the law
(http://justinian.com.au/).
See website for complete article licensing information.

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