Equal Employment Opportunity Annual Report – 1991 Overview

The Reserve Bank has had an equal opportunity programme in place since 1985 and is now midway through its third two year plan (see Appendix 1).

Achievements of the Bank's earlier plans have included the development of specific objectives, a raising in awareness of EEO principles and issues among staff, improved integration between EEO principles and personnel policy formulation, and development of relevant statistical indicators.

The Bank's current two year plan is being progressed during a period of extensive organisational change. During the past year, existing structures and functions in Head Office and the Bank's eight Australian branches have been examined and where necessary changed to enhance efficiency and effectiveness; a new broadbanded classification system has been introduced; selection and appeal procedures have been modified; new staff appraisal arrangements are being developed to assess performance; and early retirement and voluntary redundancy arrangements have been implemented to facilitate a reduction in the number of excess staff. Note Printing Australia (NPA), established as a separate division of the Bank in 1990, has also completed an extensive restructuring and has reduced staff numbers during the past year.

Some of the components of the restructuring are aimed at enhancing principles of openness, equity and merit within the Bank. In addition, some are likely to have implications for the Bank's longer-term EEO planning even though not all of these will become clear for some time. Inevitably, the restructuring process has resulted in some delay and a rescheduling of some priorities in the Bank's current EEO programme. Changes to patterns of promotion, turnover and recruitment have made the analysis of trends over the past twelve months particularly difficult.

Despite these difficulties, active implementation of the Bank's programme of equal employment opportunity has continued throughout the year.