Staff at a government department have expressed outrage after an achievement listed by bosses during a management course felt “betrayed”.
Senior managers from South Australia’s Department of Correctional Services (DCS) attended a recent forum to discuss current issues and future opportunities.
The first activity of the forum was ‘Leading your team in 2024’, where senior managers wrote ‘an achievement’, ‘a challenge’ and ‘a future opportunity’ on Post-it notes, which were then stuck on a whiteboard.
One of the “achievements” listed was “keeping staff on relatively low incomes in the face of inflation” as well as “resilience.”
A Correctional Services employee struggling to make ends meet was horrified to learn of DCS’ “achievement.”
“After discovering that DCS’s goal was to keep wages low, I felt betrayed and devalued as an employee,” the anonymous employee told the Adelaide Advertiser.
“I am even more convinced that DCS does not have my best interests at heart.”
The worker struggles to pay basic living expenses if he or she does not work overtime.
Senior managers at the Department of Correctional Services had to write “an achievement” on sticky notes attached to a whiteboard. One of the ‘achievements’ sparked outrage
A Correctional Services worker said he was totally disheartened by DCS’ ‘achievement’ of stagnant wages.
“If I worked 9 to 5, that would be impossible,” they said.
“The downside to all that overtime is that it wears me out physically.”
“It’s like having two jobs.”
The union boss said the incident highlighted the urgent need for a pay rise for DCS workers to bring them in line with the cost of living.
“The fact that DCS bosses have apparently boasted about keeping revenues low as an achievement is very degrading and insensitive,” said Public Services Association general secretary Natasha Brown.
Public Services Association general secretary Natasha Brown (pictured) said a new enterprise deal was being negotiated, but criticized the government’s initially proposed increase as “insulting and disgraceful”.
Ms Brown added that this is also symptomatic of the government’s approach, “which is to keep public service wages low”, she said.
“The disparity between public and private sector wages, and the fact that our public sector workers are struggling to pay household bills, is completely unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Brown said a new enterprise deal was being negotiated but criticized the government’s initially proposed increase as “insulting and disgraceful”.
The increase was “up to” three percent annually, with the first increase due in August 2025.
A department spokesperson said in a statement: “DCS values the work and contributions of all of its staff at its sites across the state.”
“For this reason, the forum was attended by both corporate and operational employees,” the spokesperson said.
‘Staff salaries are determined by the South African Public Sector Enterprise Agreement and not by the department.’