Sitting at home on taxpayer payroll

MORE and more Queensland public servants are on paid leave each year while being investigated for serious allegations, newly released figures show.

Amid integrity allegations, it can be revealed hundreds of public servants have been suspended with pay since the Palaszczuk Government came to power six years ago, with the number of paid suspensions mostly increasing year-onyear.

It means taxpayers have paid $88 million for bureaucrats to do nothing since 2015-16.

Last year, 474 public servants were suspended with pay, costing upwards of $22m.

Half of them were suspended for three to six months, but others spilt into the next financial year.

But the Public Service Commission couldn’t detail how many were newly suspended each year, and how many had rolled over from the previous year.

They could not detail the length of the longest suspension.

Education Department and Queensland Health staff were issued the most suspensions, with 161 and 136 respectively sitting at home on the payroll.

Public servant can be suspended with pay while investigated over allegations of workplace misconduct including sexual harassment, fraud or assault, poor behaviour or concerns over workplace safety.

A government spokesman said the suspensions affected only one per cent of the public service workforce and were only issued to employees when “allegations were serious enough.”

“The vast majority of Qld government workers meet or exceed the standards expected of them,” he said.