Staff of governmental EMBs under the Governmental and Mixed Models, and of independent EMBs that use public servants as staff under the Independent and Mixed Models, are usually employed under conditions broadly equivalent to those of public servants of similar rank and seniority. In Australia, the public service regulations allow the EMB (in common with other public agencies) considerable flexibility in its employment practices. Special allowances for electoral work, particularly to compensate for the long hours involved during electoral periods, may also be available.
In independent EMBs that are responsible for their own staffing, the salaries and conditions of senior secretariat staff are often pegged to those of senior public servants. In Romania, EMB staff are employed on contract with conditions equivalent to those of legislature staff. Salaries and conditions that are better than the public service standard may be offered to attract the highest-quality permanent and temporary staff, and as compensation for the long hours of electoral period work. However, the continued payment of higher salaries to officials of independent EMBs between elections has been criticized as inefficient.
Where government policies aim to reduce or constrain staffing levels of public agencies, or where in-house skills are not available or cannot easily be maintained, EMBs (as in South Africa in 1994 and Indonesia on a number of occasions since 1998) have often used external individual or corporate contractors, especially for technical development and support tasks, often at higher basic costs than public service rates, but without pension and allowance payments. Such an approach must be carefully managed, and may cause disquiet among EMB staff who fear for the permanency of their own positions and are aware that their base rate of pay is inferior. It may also affect the sustainability of the EMB’s operations.
