Some of Australia’s top public servants have refused to pay themselves generous bonuses.

A new survey suggests the bureaucracy is ignoring a Coalition promise to pay officials more depending on how much “red tape” they cut.

While performance bonuses remain Coalition policy, the Fairfax study says the Australian Public Service's 20 largest workplaces have effectively ignored it.

In the lead up to the 2013 election, the Coalition pledged to “link remuneration of senior executive service public servants, including future pay increases and bonuses, to quantified and proven reductions in red and green tape”.

But the plan was met with a stern warning in public service commissioner Stephen Sedgwick’s first brief to the Abbott government, saying there would be “practical challenges in implementing” the plan.

Still, LNP members including Arthur Sinodinos and Eric Abetz are pushing for financial incentives for government staff, claiming they will get the best out of government workers.

This week, Labor's federal employment spokesperson Brendan O'Connor said the attempted bonus scheme was “just another Liberal Party policy which seeks to deliver more to the haves at the expense of the have-nots”.

“The biggest issue confronting the public service isn't bonuses to senior executives,” he said.

“It's the massive number of workers who have had their pay frozen for three years and working conditions attacked because of the Liberal Party's unfair bargaining framework.”

Reporters asked the Public Service Commission why so many agencies were not keen in giving themselves bonuses.

A spokesperson for the Commission said most had “considerable flexibility to manage their senior executive remuneration arrangements, within the boundaries of government policy”.

“For a number of senior executives, the success of deregulation initiatives would be a factor in their performance management and assessment arrangements.”

Former department head under the Howard government, Allan Hawke, remains a fierce critic of its performance bonuses.

He says they are “at odds with public service culture, ignore the complexity of how the public service actually works [and are] bad for morale and teamwork”.

“Bonuses are not the issue. What's important is to have performance agreements that help to deliver the results required and development of each person towards realising their potential,” he said.