FIFTY education or child protection workers have been suspended with pay, a near tenfold rise since crimes including those of Families SA pedophile Shannon McCoole forced major reviews.
Assuming an annual average salary of $60,000, the cost to taxpayers this year will be $3 million.
The Public Service Association has told sirslackcat some staff has been on forced leave for more than two years as investigations dragged on due to a lack of “leadership” to resolve them.
The union warns a joint failure of government agencies, including SA Police and Crown Law, is harming workers left in limbo, creating costs for taxpayers and worsening understaffing problems.
Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Opposition shows a total of 53 education and child development department staff were suspended in 2015-16, 50 of them with pay.
That compares with 39 overall suspensions the year before, 31 of which were paid.
Just 10 education and child development staff were suspended in 2013-14, six of them on pay.
Education and Child Development Minister Susan Close said the figures showed “better recording and management of critical incidents” since the Debelle Inquiry of 2013.
The State Government was also forced into a major review of hiring policies in 2014, after the arrest of McCoole for abusing children in his care and publishing pornography on the internet.
A subsequent royal commission forced the education and child protection super department to be split, and the union says it is “far too early to tell” if investigations will be sped up.
Opposition waste watch spokesman Sam Duluk said the Government should be alarmed.
“It should be a real concern for the minister that 50 people in her department are currently suspended on full pay,” he said.
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