Overtime for New South Wales (NSW) public-sector workers has been on the rise, adding billions to the state’s pay bill and increasing the risk of job-related injuries and burnout. According to a report from the NSW audit office, widespread staff shortages in key agencies have been driving the rapid increase in extra hours worked by employees over the past three years.
Between July 2020 and mid-2023, overtime expenses for staff in the majority of the state’s public workforce increased by 40 percent, compared to a rise of 16 percent in overall salaries and wages. The report cited examples of individual workers, such as a trainee junior medical officer who worked more than double their standard hours in the 2022/23 financial year, and other frontline workers, including correctional officers, paramedics, and firefighters, who logged more than 1000 hours of overtime in the same period.
The report also highlighted high rates of overtime in agencies like Transport for NSW, largely due to “unplanned staff shortages.” The combined overtime bill for 25 agencies covering the vast majority of the state’s 430,000 public-sector employees was $1.2 billion (US$0.8 billion) in 2022/23.
A spokesman for the acting Treasurer Courtney Houssos attributed the staff shortages to the previous government’s wage cap which suppressed the public sector’s ability to deliver essential services. The Labor government was working to address the recruitment crisis in the public service with higher wages and other benefits for workers.
The increase in overtime was attributed to the additional output required of the NSW public service during the COVID-19 pandemic to support households and businesses. However, the audit office warned that staff consistently working large amounts of overtime could be at risk of poor mental and physical health. Despite those risks, one-fifth of the agencies had no policy on the use of overtime nor any procedure for monitoring overtime hours.