IvanM

I hear on the grapevine that the QLD government is trying to shift its army of IT contractors to permanent. In some cases the salaries on offer are half the contract rate. Rumours are of an IT exodus from the "smart state". Supposedly the QLD employees half the IT workforce in the state so the effect on the market could be massive.

Any able to verify any of this as this is from a reputable recruitment agency (if there is such a thing)?

seang

havent heard anything.

Where will they go if they do leave?

IvanM

Where the work is wherever that may be.

seang

very little of that about. Surely a goodly number of them would be settled perhaps with families so taking off would not be possible.
Would also presume there is a reason so many are contracting to the gov..as there are very few other contracts out there

IvanM

Public sector seems hooked on contractors in NSW. It seems to be a response to the inability to get approval to employee perms. Not sure if there are regional variations in QLD with Brisbane contractors less dependent on gov work.

The less mobile will not move and take the perm positions. The mobile and prospective residents would go elsewhere.

JackTheLad

Where my husband works, they've terminated lots of contractor positions in the past year or so. Some were converted to permanent. Some were let go all together. A few have been retained as contractors, but only for rare skills or for short term projects. The government might have only just realized that they've spent way too much money hiring "permanent" contractors, i.e., contractors who have been with the government departments for as long as the average permanent staff.

As a taxpayer, I think it's the right thing to do. As the wife of a contractor, I'm no so sure... Fingers crossed JTL will still have his job for at least a couple more years.

Mrs JTL

fish.01

If we have "an IT exodus from the "smart state"" that would be fanstic for those of us left ... I know it won't happen but nice to dream...

JackTheLad

http://www.psc.qld.gov.au/library/do...l-services.pdf


The salient bit being:

The only way around it is for your boss to front up to a committee and explain why his case is an exception. (Mine did )

JTL

fish.01

They've tried this before but because contractors didn't show up on the salary head counts they could be hidden a lot more easily as they came out of a different bucket.

If they suddenly had to employ heaps more permanent staff to get the job done the salary budgets would have exploded all over the place and politically this was not palatable - times may have changed but I doubt it will last unless they have changed the whole way things work as well. Maybe they will get around this by outsourcing more complete projects to software houses who will then hire the contractors...

I think they would get a lot more taxpayer value by starting to issue poor performance warnings on the way to firing the hard core of staff with bad communication skills/technical knowledge/motivation who have been shunted into the corner while the rest of the permanent staff plus contractors pick up the slack. Or have they done that already?

JackTheLad

The mantra around George Street is "They can't be sacked, they're permanent staff".

fish.01

They won't be saying that if they convert most contract to permanent and then hit a quiet patch

IvanM

What are the rate cuts like?

datamile

I converted. It seemed the safe thing to do at the moment as they've let all the contractors gone. Was a contractor for 14 years in the Uk, and a year here.

Just look at the salary point of the role that you are doing. You're not going to get special treatment and get Team lead pay for an a/p role.

I'm happy with a steady life and a sure job.

JackTheLad

My rate hasn't been cut.

Though I did think it was prudent not to ask for a pay rise for the next contract renewal.

I don't know about other contractors, as all the others I knew are either gone or now permanent.

I do feel a bit like a deer staring into the headlights at the moment,

JTL

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Never understood why companies employ contractors long term... either sign them up full time or fire them off.