Prime Minister's Australian Civilian Corps Directions 2012

The Directions rest on a handful of concepts that determine scope, duties and responsibilities.

• ACC Register (clause 2). The ACC Register is a departmental record of individuals the Department has identified as potentially suitable for engagement as Australian Civilian Corps employees. The Register is the administrative touchpoint for recruitment and selection activities referenced elsewhere in the Directions.
• Commonwealth employee and Commonwealth employer (clause 2). "Commonwealth employee" is defined narrowly as an employee engaged by a Commonwealth employer, excluding employees engaged under section 74 of the Public Service Act 1999 (the Directions supply a note to explain that s 74 permits APS agency heads to engage persons overseas as Commonwealth employees). "Commonwealth employer" adopts the meaning in s 27 of the Australian Civilian Corps Act 2011, tying the Directions to the parent Act for certain legal definitions.
• FMA Agency (clause 2). The Directions use the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 definition to identify agencies that must adopt policies under clause 3. Clause 3(1) imposes an obligation on FMA Agencies to have employment policies and practices to support participation in the ACC, while clause 3(2) permits each FMA Agency to determine how to meet that obligation in a manner consistent with the broader objective.
• Home employer/home employment (clause 2). The Directions introduce the concepts of "home employer" and "home employment" to identify the employer with whom the employee’s continuity of employment is preserved and to whom return and classification obligations apply (clauses 5 note; 6).
• Compulsory ACC training and compulsory engagement triggers (clause 4). "Compulsory ACC training" is training identified by the Department as necessary to prepare a person for engagement as an ACC employee. Clause 4 governs permissions to attend such training for applicable Commonwealth employees.
• Leave for deployment (clause 5). Leave for deployment is framed as leave without pay for the period of engagement as an ACC employee, with a duty on the employer to grant the leave unless specific notification-based exceptions apply.
• Right of return and classification equivalence (clause 6). The Directions create an enforceable administrative expectation that the home employer must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the period of leave, arrange for the employee to return to undertake duties at the classification they held immediately prior to the ACC engagement, or an equivalent classification determined by the home employer, unless specified exceptions apply.
• Personal leave recognition (clause 7). On return, home employers must recognise unused personal leave that an APS employee accrued during ACC engagement as if it accrued with the home employer from the date of return.

These concepts interact: the ACC Register drives selection; compulsory training and leave rules determine temporary movement of staff; right-of-return and personal-leave recognition govern the post-deployment reintegration of APS employees or those in FMA Agencies. The Directions privilege administrative coordination and continuity of employment while leaving certain operational choices and assessments to the home employer or the Secretary, each within defined limits. The Directions also set out who may perform functions on behalf of a Commonwealth employer, allowing delegated decision-making (clause 2(2)). The Directions do not specify procedural detail for how equivalence is determined, what records must be kept, or formal timelines for "as soon as is reasonably practicable", leaving those matters to implementing policies and administrative practice (clauses 3, 6(2)).

The Directions draw a limited and specific coverage map. The immediate groups affected are:

• APS employees and Commonwealth employees engaged in an FMA Agency (clauses 4(1), 5(1), 6(1)). The obligations in clauses 4, 5 and 6 apply only to these employees. Where the text uses "Commonwealth employee" without further qualification, the general definition in clause 2 applies (which excludes employees engaged under s 74 of the Public Service Act 1999).
• FMA Agencies (clause 3). FMA Agencies must adopt employment policies and practices to support their Commonwealth employees’ participation in the ACC, including seeking acceptance onto the ACC Register (clause 3(1)). Agencies that are not FMA Agencies are not subject to clause 3(1), but the Directions note that where an APS employee engaged in a non-FMA Agency is required to attend compulsory ACC training or is identified as suitable for deployment, the agency would be subject to the same release and return requirements under clauses 4 to 6 (note to clause 3).
• Home employers (clause 2). The "home employer" concept designates the Commonwealth employer who engages a person in the capacity they ordinarily hold outside ACC engagement. Home employers are responsible for arranging return to duty and ensuring classification or overall terms and conditions are no less favourable as required by clause 6.
• The Secretary (clauses 2(2), 5(2)(b)). The Secretary has a procedural role: the Secretary may notify a Commonwealth employer that the Secretary does not intend, or no longer intends, to engage an employee as an ACC employee, which relieves the employer’s obligation to grant leave when that notification is given (clause 5(2)(b)). Employers must advise the Secretary if they decline to release an employee on specified grounds (clause 5(2)(a)).
• The Department maintaining the ACC Register (clause 2). The Directions assume Departmental responsibility for maintaining the ACC Register.

Excluded or indirectly affected groups include:

• Employees engaged under s 74 of the Public Service Act 1999 (clause 2 note). The definition of Commonwealth employee expressly excludes these people, so the Directions’ direct duties do not apply to them.
• Agencies outside the definition of FMA Agency are not required by clause 3 to adopt policies, but they remain exposed to clauses 4-6 in the specific circumstances described in the note to clause 3.

Practical effects on these groups can entail administrative burdens: FMA Agencies must draft and operate supportive employment policies (clause 3). Home employers must be prepared to grant leave without pay and to readmit staff at prior or equivalent classifications (clauses 5-6). Employees who are APS employees or engaged in an FMA Agency gain rights to permission for compulsory training, leave for deployment, return to duties and recognition of personal leave accrued during engagement, subject to limits and exclusions set out in the Directions (clauses 4-7). The Secretary’s notification power also affects which deployments proceed and when employer obligations to grant leave or arrange return arise (clause 5(2)(b)).

The Directions create a set of affirmative duties on FMA Agencies, Commonwealth employers and home employers, and corresponding procedural rights for qualifying employees.

Duties on FMA Agencies

• Adopt employment policies and practices to support participation in the ACC and seeking acceptance onto the ACC Register (clause 3(1)). Agencies have discretion on form and content so long as policies remain consistent with the objective to support recruitment and deployment (clause 3(2)).

Duty to permit attendance at compulsory ACC training

• For qualifying Commonwealth employees (APS employees or those engaged in an FMA Agency), the Commonwealth employer must grant permission to attend compulsory ACC training if the employee seeks permission, "to the extent that the terms and conditions of employment of the employee allow such permission to be granted" (clause 4(2)). Employers may grant permission by granting paid or unpaid leave or by permitting attendance without taking leave, depending on terms and conditions (note to clause 4). Employers may also permit attendance on different dates or on different terms from those requested (clause 4(3)). The Directions define "compulsory ACC training" as training identified by the Department for preparing a person for ACC engagement (clause 4(4)).

Duty to grant leave for deployment

• For qualifying employees, if the employee applies for leave without pay for a period of ACC engagement, the Commonwealth employer must grant that leave unless two narrowly framed exceptions occur (clause 5(2)). The employer may decline release only if the employer advises the Secretary that the employee’s absence would pose a significant risk to national security or delivery of essential government services, or would likely adversely affect Australia’s international relations, or there are other compelling reasons against granting leave (clause 5(2)(a)(i)-(iii)). The alternative exception is that the Secretary notifies the Commonwealth employer that the Secretary does not intend, or no longer intends, to engage the employee (clause 5(2)(b)). The Directions preserve continuity of home employment entitlements for determining perks like parental leave, long service leave, superannuation and redundancy (note to clause 5).

Right of return and classification duties

• On return from ACC engagement, the home employer must arrange for the employee to return to undertake duties as soon as is reasonably practicable (clause 6(2)). The employer must arrange for the employee to undertake duties at the employee’s classification immediately before the period of leave commenced (clause 6(5)). If that classification no longer exists, the employer must arrange duties at an equivalent classification determined by the home employer (clause 6(6)). The employer may instead arrange duties on terms and conditions that are no less favourable overall than before the leave (clause 6(7)). The Directions limit exceptions: the return duty does not apply where changed circumstances outside the home employer’s power make return impossible, or the employee notifies they do not wish to return (clause 6(3)). Crucially, hiring a replacement during the period of leave does not amount to a changed circumstance (clause 6(4)).

Recognition of personal leave

• Where an APS employee returns to the home employer after ACC engagement, the home employer must recognise any unused personal leave accrued during ACC engagement as if it accrued with the home employer on and from the date of return (clause 7).

Delegation and performance of functions

• Where the Directions confer a function on a Commonwealth employer, that function may be performed by any person authorised by the Commonwealth employer, either expressly or impliedly (clause 2(2)). This permits delegation of duties created by the Directions in internal administrative arrangements.

Rights of employees

• Employees who are APS employees or engaged in an FMA Agency have a procedural right to permission to attend compulsory training (clause 4) and a right to be granted leave without pay for ACC deployment, subject to the exceptions and notification mechanics outlined above (clause 5). On return, employees have the right to be reinstated to previous or equivalent classification or to terms no less favourable overall (clauses 6(5)-(7)) and to have personal leave accrued during the ACC engagement recognised if they are APS employees returning after ACC engagement (clause 7).

The Directions therefore create an administrative architecture of entitlements for specific Commonwealth employees, while preserving employer decision-making where the employee’s terms and conditions limit permission to attend training and where specified high-level operational or security reasons justify refusing release (clause 4(2); clause 5(2)(a)(i)-(iii)). The Secretary’s notification power further modulates these duties (clause 5(2)(b)). Delegation language in clause 2(2) enables internal administrative implementation.

The Directions do not establish or specify criminal penalties, civil fines, administrative sanctions, or an external enforcement tribunal within their text. The instrument relies on mandatory language ("must") to impose obligations on Commonwealth employers, home employers and FMA Agencies (for example, clause 3(1) uses "must", clause 4(2) uses "must grant", and clause 5(2) uses "the employer must grant the leave unless" followed by specified exceptions). However, the Directions themselves set out internal notification pathways and procedural checks rather than an external penalty regime.

Administrative enforcement mechanisms within the text

• Employer notification to the Secretary. Clause 5(2)(a) requires an employer to advise the Secretary if the employer declines to release an employee, furnishing the ground(s) relied on from the specified list. This imposes an obligation to report a refusal decision to the Secretary, creating an administrative oversight mechanism.
• Secretary notification to employer. Clause 5(2)(b) permits the Secretary to notify the Commonwealth employer that the Secretary does not intend, or no longer intends, to engage the employee. That notification functions as an administrative veto of the employer’s obligation to grant leave for the relevant engagement.
• Delegation and authorisation. Clause 2(2) allows Commonwealth employers to authorise persons to perform functions conferred by the Directions, enabling an internal compliance chain and allocation of responsibility.

Absence of express sanctions

• Nowhere in the text are express penalties, remedies or dispute-resolution processes provided for breaches of the Directions’ obligations, such as failure to adopt policies under clause 3, failure to grant permission under clause 4, or failure to arrange return under clause 6. The Directions rely on administrative duty language, reporting to the Secretary via clause 5(2)(a), and executive control via clause 5(2)(b) as the available levers within the instrument itself.

Implications of the absence of specified penalties

• Enforcement will be primarily managerial and administrative: compliance will depend on internal agency governance, oversight by the Secretary (where notification obligations are triggered) and any remedies or dispute processes available under employment contracts, common law duties of employers, or other statutory schemes outside the Directions. The Directions do not state how disputes about interpretation (for example, what constitutes "as soon as is reasonably practicable", or whether alternative duties are "no less favourable overall") are to be resolved.
• Clause 3(2) leaves the substance of FMA Agency policies to the agency, implying that compliance monitoring and any corrective measures would be implemented at the agency level rather than by the Directions themselves.

In sum, the Directions create mandatory duties but set out administrative channels rather than express sanctions. The principal implementable enforcement tools embedded in the text are the reporting requirement when leave is refused (clause 5(2)(a)) and the Secretary’s notification power (clause 5(2)(b)). Other enforcement or remedial avenues would arise, if at all, from sources outside the Directions (employment contracts, workplace relations law, the parent Act, agency policy and normal departmental oversight mechanisms), none of which is specified in the Directions themselves.

The Directions link directly to, and are framed by, other statutory instruments and employment law concepts mentioned in the text.

Direct textual cross-references

• Australian Civilian Corps Act 2011. The Directions define "Act" as the Australian Civilian Corps Act 2011 (clause 2). They also adopt the Act’s definition of "Commonwealth employer" by reference to section 27 of that Act (clause 2). This anchors parts of the Directions, such as which entities qualify as Commonwealth employers, to the parent Act.
• Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997. The Directions use the FMA Act’s definition of "FMA Agency" (clause 2). Clause 3 imposes obligations specifically on FMA Agencies to adopt employment policies and practices supporting ACC participation.
• Public Service Act 1999 (s 74). The Directions exclude from their "Commonwealth employee" definition persons engaged under s 74 of the Public Service Act 1999 and include a note explaining that s 74 permits APS agency heads to engage persons overseas to perform duties overseas as Commonwealth employees (clause 2 note). That exclusion affects the coverage of clauses 4-7.

Employment entitlements and continuity

• The Directions contain an explicit note that the continuity of a Commonwealth employee’s home employment is not broken by ACC engagement for the purposes of determining entitlements such as parental leave, long service leave, superannuation and redundancy (note to clause 5). This statement creates an internal rule of continuity that interacts practically with statutory leave and superannuation regimes, although the Directions do not themselves specify how contributions or accruals are to be managed administratively. The legal effect is to preserve an employee’s entitlement continuity as if the period of ACC engagement did not sever the employment relationship for entitlement purposes.

Interaction with agency policies

• Clause 3(1) requires FMA Agencies to have employment policies and practices supporting participation in the ACC. Clause 3(2) allows each FMA Agency to determine its approach, subject to consistency with the objective to support recruitment and deployment. This means the Directions operate alongside an agency’s other statutory obligations (for example, under the Public Service Act, workplace relations law and FMA accountability requirements), and agencies must design policies that align the Directions with those frameworks.

Limitations and delegated functions

• Clause 2(2) permits persons authorised by the Commonwealth employer to perform functions conferred by the Directions. This delegates discretion within agencies and interacts with internal delegation instruments, employment contracts and administrative law principles of lawful delegation.

Gaps and consequential reliance on other legal frameworks

• The Directions do not specify dispute-resolution mechanisms, penalties, or precise procedural steps for some of their key concepts (for example, determining when a classification "no longer exists", what constitutes "equivalent classification" or how to quantify whether alternative terms are "no less favourable overall"). That leaves these issues to be resolved by agency policies, employment contracts, or, if contested, by reference to employment law remedies and administrative-law review outside the Directions themselves.

Overall, the Directions are an administrative instrument that sits within a web of Commonwealth employment law: they adopt definitions from the parent Act and other statutes, preserve continuity for entitlement purposes, require agencies to implement compatible internal policies, and rely on internal delegation and agency processes to bridge the operational details the Directions do not provide.

The text provided contains the Prime Minister’s Australian Civilian Corps Directions 2012 as a standalone instrument and does not include any amendment history, dates of amendment, versioning annotations, or notes of repeal or supersession. The Directions contain clause numbering (1A, 2-7) and incorporated notes, but do not include a legislative history section or any marginal notes indicating subsequent modification.

Consequences of the absence of an amendment record in the supplied text

• Where no amendment history is present in the instrument itself, practitioners must rely on external sources (government registers, legislative instruments registers, or the promulgating gazette) to discover whether the Directions have been amended, replaced or repealed since 2012. The Directions as supplied do not indicate whether the instrument remains current or whether later instruments have altered its content.
• The lack of an internal amendment trail in the instrument means the Directions provide their operative provisions without signalling interpretive changes over time. For questions of contemporary application, agencies and advisers would need to verify status against official legislative instrument registries or departmental records.

Implications for interpretation and practice

• Because the instrument contains no recorded amendments, any contemporary compliance or implementation effort should check whether the definitions and cross-references (for example, to the Australian Civilian Corps Act 2011, the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997, and the Public Service Act 1999 s 74) remain current and unchanged in practice. If an external amendment to one of those statutes has occurred, the Directions’ references could lead to different operational effects.
• The Directions leave several important terms operationally open (for example, "as soon as is reasonably practicable", "equivalent classification", "no less favourable overall"). Absent an amendment record, agencies must develop binding internal policies under clause 3(1) to give these terms effect. The absence of a recorded amendment history in the instrument increases the importance of contemporaneous agency policy and administrative guidance to fill gaps.

In short, the supplied text does not document any amendments. That silence means the legal status and any amendments must be checked in external registries and that agencies should rely on policy and administrative guidance to operationalise the Directions’ open-ended provisions.

The Directions, as provided, contain no reference to judicial decisions, administrative decisions, determinations, or any litigation history. There are no cases cited, no appellate history, and no examples of adjudication over interpretation or application of these Directions included in the instrument’s text.

Consequences of the absence of litigation references

• The lack of judicial or tribunal guidance in the instrument means that the Directions’ finer points,such as the meaning of "as soon as is reasonably practicable" (clause 6(2)), what qualifies as "equivalent classification" (clause 6(6)), or how to assess whether alternative terms are "no less favourable overall" (clause 6(7)),are untested in the supplied text. Agencies and employees therefore rely on administrative practice, agency policy (clause 3), and applicable employment law principles outside the Directions in the event of dispute.
• Where the Directions require an employer to notify the Secretary upon declining to release an employee (clause 5(2)(a)), or permit the Secretary to notify that the Secretary does not intend to engage an employee (clause 5(2)(b)), the absence of litigation history leaves uncertain how courts or tribunals might review the reasonableness of those decisions or the sufficiency of the employer’s reasons. Any legal review would depend on contestable facts, statutory context and applicable administrative law principles not specified in the Directions.

Practical effect for practitioners

• Advisers and counsel preparing for or defending disputes involving the Directions should expect that resolution will turn on agency policy, contractual terms, contemporaneous communications around recruitment, leave and return, and possibly general employment law doctrines or administrative law review outside the Directions themselves. Because no litigation history is included in the instrument, practitioners must look to external sources (case law on analogous duties in employment and administrative contexts) for jurisprudential guidance when formulating arguments; however, such external materials are not part of the Directions’ text and are not provided here.

In sum, there is no litigation history in the supplied Directions. This creates interpretive and predictive uncertainty, placing weight on agency policy, internal documentation, and any external legal frameworks that may be invoked in disputes.

The Directions contain multiple textual features that create practical pitfalls and interpretive traps for agencies, managers and employees. The key "gotchas" to watch for are concrete and textually grounded.

Scope limitations and coverage confusion

• The application of clauses 4-6 is expressly limited to a Commonwealth employee who is an APS employee or is engaged in an FMA Agency (clauses 4(1), 5(1), 6(1)). Practitioners must not assume automatic application to all Commonwealth employees , persons engaged under s 74 of the Public Service Act 1999 are excluded from the "Commonwealth employee" definition (clause 2 note). Misreading the coverage could lead to incorrect granting or refusal of training permission or leave.

"To the extent terms and conditions allow"

• Clause 4(2) requires employers to grant permission to attend compulsory ACC training "to the extent that the terms and conditions of employment of the employee allow such permission to be granted in the circumstances." That language can produce uncertainty where employment instruments (contracts, enterprise agreements, policy) are silent or ambiguous about absence for extraneous training. Agencies must examine the underlying terms and ensure a lawful basis for permitting attendance or denying it.

Leave is framed as leave without pay

• Clause 5(2) contemplates leave without pay for ACC deployment. Employers and employees must not assume paid leave automatically applies unless employment terms separately provide for it. The note to clause 4 supplies examples where paid leave may be used for training, but leave for deployment in clause 5 is expressly described as leave without pay.

Notification mechanics can transform legal obligations

• If the Secretary notifies the Commonwealth employer that the Secretary does not intend to engage the employee, the employer need not grant leave (clause 5(2)(b)). Conversely, if the employer declines to release the employee, it must advise the Secretary and provide a ground from a narrow list (clause 5(2)(a)). Agencies must ensure precise record-keeping and timely communication with the Secretary to legal effect these procedural triggers.

"Changed circumstances" exception is narrow

• Clause 6(3)(a) allows the return obligation to be displaced where changed circumstances make it not within the home employer’s power to arrange the return, but clause 6(4) makes explicit that engaging another person to replace the employee during the period of leave does not constitute a changed circumstance. Agencies may err by believing that having hired a replacement absolves them of the duty to reinstate; the Directions explicitly state it does not.

Classification equivalence and "no less favourable overall"

• Clause 6(5)-(7) requires return to the previous classification or an "equivalent classification" determined by the home employer, and allows alternative terms if they are "no less favourable overall." The Directions give home employers discretion to determine equivalence and overall favourability. That discretion creates a risk of disputes over adequacy and process; agencies should anticipate needing contemporaneous documentation to justify equivalence determinations.

Personal leave recognition narrowly framed

• Clause 7 requires home employers to recognise unused personal leave an APS employee accrued during ACC engagement as if it accrued with the home employer on and from the return date. The clause applies to APS employees returning to their home employer; its scope does not explicitly extend to non-APS Commonwealth employees engaged in FMA Agencies. Practitioners must not assume the clause applies to all Commonwealth employees.

Delegation does not remove substantive obligations

• Clause 2(2) allows functions conferred on a Commonwealth employer to be performed by authorised persons. Delegation of decision-making does not eliminate the employer’s overall obligation to have policies, grant permissions, and arrange return; agencies must ensure delegations are properly authorised and recorded.

No statutory enforcement mechanism in the Directions

• The Directions contain mandatory language but no penalties or enforcement procedures within the text. Expect that compliance will be enforced administratively and through employer-employee instruments rather than through fines or criminal sanctions in the Directions themselves.

Records and the ACC Register

• Clause 2’s definition of ACC Register confirms a departmental register exists, but the Directions do not provide detail about access, data sharing, privacy protections or retention. Agencies relying on the Register for selection or notification processes must attend to separate data governance and privacy frameworks outside the Directions.

In practice, these "gotchas" mean implementers should not treat the Directions as self-explanatory; they must craft policies under clause 3 that address the ambiguities, ensure timely communications with the Secretary under clause 5, and maintain documentary evidence to justify classification and leave decisions under clause 6.

Compliance requires a mix of policy drafting, HR process adjustments, record-keeping and clear lines of communication with the Secretary and the Department. Below is a practical checklist, strictly grounded in the Directions’ text, for FMA Agencies, home employers and Commonwealth employers.

1. Confirm coverage and identify affected staff

• Map which employees are APS employees or are engaged in an FMA Agency (clauses 4(1), 5(1), 6(1)). Exclude persons engaged under s 74 of the Public Service Act 1999 where applicable (clause 2 note). Identify which business units are likely to nominate staff for the ACC Register or compulsory ACC training (clause 2; clause 4(4)).

2. Build or update agency-level policy (required for FMA Agencies)

• Draft employment policies and practices supporting participation in the ACC as required by clause 3(1). Clause 3(2) permits each FMA Agency to determine its own approach provided it remains consistent with the objective to support recruitment and deployment; document how the policy meets that objective.
• Include procedures for: assessing and granting permission to attend compulsory ACC training (clause 4); processing applications for leave without pay for ACC deployment (clause 5); arranging return to home employment and determining classification equivalence or alternative terms no less favourable overall (clause 6); and recognising personal leave accrued during ACC engagement for returning APS employees (clause 7).

3. Implement training-permission processes

• Establish an application and approval workflow so that when an employee seeks permission to attend compulsory ACC training, the employer can make a timely determination "to the extent that the terms and conditions of employment... allow" (clause 4(2)). Record whether permission is granted by paid leave, unpaid leave, or attendance without taking leave as offered in the note to clause 4. Provide for alternative dates or terms where the employer elects to grant permission on different terms (clause 4(3)).

4. Establish leave-for-deployment procedures and Secretary notifications

• Set out a process for employees to apply for leave without pay for ACC engagement and for employers to grant such leave unless a specified ground justifies refusal (clause 5(2)). If refusing release, ensure the employer formally advises the Secretary stating the ground relied upon (clause 5(2)(a)(i)-(iii)). Maintain templates and records of such notifications to the Secretary to evidence compliance with clause 5(2).
• Maintain a channel to receive and act on any notification from the Secretary that the Secretary does not intend to engage the employee (clause 5(2)(b)). Ensure HR staff understand that such a notification displaces the obligation to grant leave.

5. Plan for return-to-work and classification management

• Prepare reintegration procedures to arrange for an employee’s return "as soon as is reasonably practicable" after the period of leave (clause 6(2)). Document expected timelines and contingencies showing reasonableness.
• Maintain systems to restore duties at the employee’s previous classification, or if that classification no longer exists, determine and document an equivalent classification (clauses 6(5)-(6)). If alternative duties or terms are proposed, document a structured comparison demonstrating that the new terms are "no less favourable overall" than the pre-leave terms (clause 6(7)).
• Do not assume that hiring a replacement during leave eliminates the duty to reinstate; clause 6(4) expressly excludes replacement hiring from constituting a changed circumstance. If the employer considers return impossible due to changed circumstances, document why the circumstances are outside the employer’s power (clause 6(3)(a)).

6. Record personal leave accruals for returning APS employees

• For APS employees returning after ACC engagement, track and record any personal leave accrued during ACC engagement, and ensure the home employer recognises that leave on and from the employee’s return date as if it had accrued with the home employer (clause 7). Update payroll and leave management systems accordingly.

7. Delegation and authorisation

• Where functions conferred by the Directions are to be performed by delegated officers, ensure proper authorisations are in place (clause 2(2)). Record delegations in accordance with internal governance standards so that delegated decisions are traceable and legally valid.

8. Data and the ACC Register

• Maintain internal procedures for interacting with the Department’s ACC Register, noting that the Directions describe the Register as a departmental record of potentially suitable individuals (clause 2). Put in place data-handling processes consistent with agency privacy obligations (the Directions do not set out privacy rules; separate frameworks must be followed).

9. Documentation and audit trail

• Given the Directions’ lack of express external enforcement mechanisms, maintain robust records of permissions granted/denied, leave applications and decisions, Secretary notifications (both directions to and from the Secretary), classification equivalence decisions, and documentation showing alternative terms were no less favourable. These records will be essential if an employment dispute arises or if the agency needs to justify its decisions administratively.

10. Policy alignment and stakeholder communication

• Ensure FMA Agency policies under clause 3 align with enterprise agreements, employment contracts and other statutory obligations (for example, those affecting parental leave, long service leave, superannuation and redundancy referred to in the note to clause 5). Communicate clearly to employees the mechanics of training permission, leave without pay for deployment, return-to-work processes and personal leave recognition.

Following these steps, each grounded in the text of the Directions (clauses 2-7, and the notes), will operationalise the Directions internally and reduce the risk of non-compliance through omission or procedural error. Agencies should also periodically verify whether the Directions have been amended or whether related statutory instruments have changed, since the supplied text contains no amendment history.