A “toxic workplace culture” at the Bureau of Meteorology needs urgent action to protect both the staff and the public, according to internal complaints that have been escalated to the federal government.
Employees and their union have contacted the offices of a range of federal government ministers alleging bullying, widespread underpayment of overtime for staff, unsafe working hours and a lack of fatigue management.
The discontent came to a head this week after the surprise announcement that the BoM wanted to be referred to in the media as “the Bureau”.
Documents seen by Guardian Australia outline the staff complaints, and the Community and Public Sector Union said “urgent measures” were required to keep staff safe.
The deputy secretary of the CPSU, Beth Vincent-Pietsch, said the alleged problems went back years but became worse after management changes about a year ago. After the “rebranding” exercise the BoM was deluged with complaints and requests for information, making the situation worse.
“Staff … have been putting up with unsafe working hours, a toxic work culture and underpayment issues, dating back five years,” Vincent-Pietsch alleged.
“We’ve been airing concerns for a long time but … the debacle of the rebrand has made things so much worse.”
The bureau revealed its plan on Tuesday as thousands of people were struggling with widespread flooding across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.
By Thursday, it had backpedalled, saying people were free to refer to the BoM however they liked. But the rebrand had been in train for 18 months, with staff told to use the new terminology internally and claims they were treated “like naughty schoolchildren” if they didn’t.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said she “did not understand” why the $220,000 rebrand happened.
“The Bureau of Meteorology, the BoM – Australians will make up their own minds about what they call it,” she said.
Vincent-Pietsch said the announcement happened “without any warning” and staff were left to deal with the fallout. “Staff were being chastised, arguably spoken down to to try and rebrand BoM as the bureau, making that a significant issue, but when they actually launched it … staff weren’t told,” she alleged.
“Then they were bombarded with queries and complaints, internally and externally and it all got out of control around social media.
“It was clearly poorly timed … resources were diverted to deal with the announcement and its fallout instead of the weather and what was happening across the country.”
Documents seen by Guardian Australia show discussions between multiple current and former staff members, the union and ministers’ offices that allege the underpayment of overtime is a “widespread issue”. Concerns have been raised about the health of exhausted team members and the potential flow-on effect to the public if they were not able to properly deliver life-saving information in severe weather.
They include allegations some staff have suffered from mental stress to the point of hospitalisation, and of a lack of support and communication from management.
Vincent-Pietsch said one staff member had worked 16 hour days for 10 days in a row.
“We want some urgent measures put in place for the health and safety of these workers,” she said. “They’re dealing with life-threatening situations … the bureau has never been more necessary.”
The BoM and the federal government have been contacted for comment.
