AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM REORGANISATION

Thursday 12 November 2015

The Australian Museum (AM) is undergoing a reorganisation to meet its financial obligations and to ensure it has the right capabilities among the workforce to fulfil its future needs and realise its vision.

To meet these objectives, the AM has undertaken workforce planning identifying the roles, capabilities and organisational structure required for its future and to ensure its long-term financial sustainability.

At All Staff Meetings in May and October, the AM discussed workforce planning and the organisation’s need to be financially sustainable to ensure its future operations and realise its vision. While the AM has undertaken many measures to control costs, the organisation's expenditure on salaries exceeds its recurrent grant funding and the Labour Cap Limit set by NSW Treasury.

The result of the reorganisation is that the AM has reduced its workforce of 380 by 13% (full-time and part-time roles). Most of the reductions have occurred in administrative and support roles. There has been no reduction in the number of Research Scientists and two new Research Scientist roles, both joint appointments with a university, will be announced in the near future.

As part of the overall reorganisation of the workforce, the planning process identified seven (7) roles no longer required as well as functions that could be provided more effectively in other ways. The affected employees were notified on Tuesday 10 November and may choose to accept an offer of voluntary redundancy or pursue redeployment during a three month period as per NSW Government policy.

In line with other institutions, the AM has also moved from partial provision to full provision of security services by professional external security firms. Five (5) security roles previously filled by employees will now be filled by external security firms. The affected employees, who were also notified on Tuesday 10 November, may choose between voluntary redundancy or redeployment options.

From the voluntary redundancy expressions of interest process in October 2015, 38 employees (full-time and part-time roles) opted to accept the redundancy package offered to them.

There will be no more redundancies as part of this reorganisation.

This reorganisation is vital for the AM’s future ensuring that Australia’s first museum continues to develop and succeed.