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14 hours ago

RETIREES FIGHTING CUTBACKS

The PSA/CPSU NSW Retired Associates are gearing up to campaign against the newly elected State Government.
The PSA/CPSU NSW Retired Associates is a forum for members who are eager to continue to fight for workers’ rights and a properly funded public service. The group also campaigns on behalf of retirees throughout the country, lobbying both the state and federal governments for a better deal for older Australians.

According to Chair Robert Ryan, the group plans to make representations to the State Government on what it sees as a decline in building standards, which has already seen two high-rise blocks of flats evacuated. He ties this to the lack of oversight from a government more determined to shed staff than maintain standards.

He said the defects in the Opal building in the Olympic precinct and more recently Mascot Towers show the Government is not enforcing standards sufficiently.
“These buildings have defects so great it is not possible to remain silent and fix the problem quietly,” said Mr Ryan. “Worse still, these defects have occurred at a time when there is less certainty in the strata property market than at any other time this century.

“Last February, in response to Opal, the NSW Government told the Australian Council of Governments meeting in Hobart that if re-elected, it would introduce legislation to create a Building Commissioner’s Office, require architects and engineers to sign off on building plans, require builders to sign off that the building was constructed in accord with the certified plans; and enable owners’ corporations to sue in negligence if the building code was not delivered.”
Many older Australians are downsizing to buildings such as Opal and Mascot Towers, or have invested their savings to purchase flats in them. ... See MoreSee Less

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Public Service Association of NSW

1 day ago

The decision to close Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation Centre is getting smellier. The ABC has discovered that the Government, in caretaker mode and only six days after an election, closed the site on a minute's notice against the advice of its own experts. If it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck..... Troy Wright, Assistant General Secretary ... See MoreSee Less

Origin Energy accused of pressuring NSW Government to shut down popular sports camp

One phone call closed a popular waterfront camp that had hosted thousands of children over 75 years — but documents obtained by the ABC show that a NSW Government office went against the advice of e...

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A permanent Federal & state ICAC with " whistleblower" protection.

Our kids with disabilities have been going to school camps here for years

I left Origen... The sales people are too pushy to try and kerp you after youve switched suppliers

So like the Clarence Colliery toxic waste dump spill in the Blue Mountains. They expect it to happen again ! Tailing dams is controlled dumping. "The State Government closed it due to fears that a nearby coal ash dam could pose a risk in the event of an earthquake"

This government are the puppets of big business.

The public need to ask Origin Why? Lets put this question to them. so we can get at the real reason.

Pressure by these corporate criminal mafia thugs == paper bags.

Corruption. Nobody does it better than the LNP

Corruption and greed.

Sophie Gois

Disgrace

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Public Service Association of NSW

2 days ago

A VANGUARD FOR WOMEN AT WORK.

Looking back at our union’s 120 illustrious years, it is heartening to see how early we were championing women at work. And it is disheartening seeing the same arguments being fought decades after they should have been laid to rest.

From the earliest days, the PSA was looking out for women in the public service. In the early days, women were usually found in clerical roles, and expected to leave the service when married.

However, two world wars changed forever these expectations, as more women filled public-sector roles left vacant by servicemen fighting abroad. From the outset, the PSA was demanding women be paid at the same rates as men. Of course, some of this was inspired less out of a sense of gender equality and more from some blokes’ fear of being priced out of the jobs market.

The strides made in the war years were tempered in the more conservative 1950s, and the Commonwealth Government’s ‘marriage bar’, which required married women to leave the public service, wasn’t lifted until 1966.

Today, more than 60 per cent of state public servants are women – and the PSA’s membership reflects this. No longer confined to clerical roles until their wedding day, women now head departments and are presidents of unions.

While it is tempting to rest on our laurels, the 120th anniversary of the PSA is also a time to look at the battles we are still fighting. Long after equal pay was legislated, women-dominated fields such as schools are paid less than ‘blokey’ jobs. The recent pay out for disability workers transitioning to the private sector was much less than that given to ferry workers several years earlier.

Too often women are sexually harassed at work, while disproportionate caring responsibilities leave women with far smaller superannuation balances than their male counterparts.

The 120th anniversary of our union gives us the chance to reflect on more than a century of making a real difference to members’ lives, and provides us the impetus to keep up the fight for the next 120.

Kylie McKelvie
PSA President ... See MoreSee Less

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The ability to obtain Flexibility is an important issue that needs more of a fight. This is one important factor which enables women (and men) with families to obtain and retain meaningful work.

Whats the PSA doing to make sure we dont have the same debacle as Vic being stuck with Setka who is now convicted for sending hateful bile to women?

Kylie, you have a real battle ahead of you for the next 4 years.

Public Service Association of NSW

3 days ago

WE TOLD YOU SO
Providers fleeing disability ‘market’

The privatisation of disability services in NSW is turning into a fiasco, as providers flee a marketplace that in a fair society should never have existed in the first place.

The Benevolent Society has announced it will pull out almost entirely from case management, is scaling back its clinical services and is consolidating its regional services, leaving people in nine regional centres such as Narrabri, Port Macquarie and Albury without services. This means they will have to travel vast distances to other towns and cities, languish without support, or turn to more expensive options.

Another provider, Australian Unity, has decided to pull out of home care services.

There is also instability with Hunter Valley Disability Services and North Coast Disability Services, which are struggling as larger, merged organisations made up of smaller providers.

“There is no doubt people will fall through the cracks with this,” says CPSU NSW Industrial Officer, Graydon Welsh. “Who knows where they will go? They will have to hope there is a local provider in their area to provide them the clinical support they need. Or potentially they will have to look for a for-profit organisation.

“Their care would still come through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funding, but they may not get the same level of service.”

Of course, none of this news is surprising to the CPSU NSW, which has long warned that care for people with disability is a core function of a government. On Valentine’s Day 2017, the union brought the centre of Sydney to a standstill as disability support workers marched in torrential rain in a last-ditch plea to keep a public safety net available for some of the state’s most vulnerable people.

In a video address to CPSU NSW members in the sector, Assistant General Secretary Troy Wright talked about the way the union has “constantly campaigned against the privatisation of ADHC”.

“We have constantly raised serious concerns that there will be people who slip through the cracks, there is a need for a public safety net, and there is no way the private sector would be able to do anywhere close to the job ADHC has done,” he said.

“There isn’t the money in the NDIS, it is not property packaged and structured,” he said. “These are private sector organisations, effectively, making a commercial decision.”

Mr Wright said the CPSU NSW has made representations to the new Minister for Disability Services, Gareth Ward, pointing out “these aren’t decisions that should be made on commercial interests”.

Mr Wright said the cuts to services are unlikely to be the last under the new system.

“I don’t want to be in the game of saying, ‘I told you so’, to politicians and the media, but this is the sad reality of where we are.”

Mr Wright said the State Government’s plans for an Ageing and Disability Commissioner should have “broad-ranging powers” that can look into issues such as “service gaps” and “funding debacles”. The CPSU NSW has already been to Macquarie Street to urge the Government to implement these demands. ... See MoreSee Less

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Services may be not for profit but they are also not for loss. Therefore rationalisation will occur because there is no safety net just so they can survive. Sad blight on our country

🤬😓 everyone who s ever worked with the high support needs clients- in any human service, not just ADHC- saw this coming from the start. The cracks get wider and more and more people slide through

People with disability in NSW deserve better and a guarantee of service that only public disability services can ensure.

A service provider in The Hunter Valley has stopped providing psychological services as they have not been paid for 6 months. Efforts to get payment from the "responsible" Govt. Dept. has been met with promises of payment "in due time." Small business cannot survive in this scheme's management.

Services can't run on insecure funding as is the basis of the NDIS. It's just not a functional model. Other services operated on an individual basis are also opting out as it is too hard to comply with there demands based on insecure participation rates.

The caring free market opportunists

The 8 years of privatization in NSW is now starting to fall over. Electricity has resulted in consumers being price gouged and underinvestment by the private owners. The NSW LNP are happy to see Canberra take the heat for them, when in fact it was the state govt who are to blame for the energy crisis. Electricity is a state responsibility despite all the talk of a " national grid". Inner West buses has resulted in underperformance in on time running not to mention service failures. Now disability services outsourcing has resulted in the people in need are being left in the lurch.

This all to pay for infrastructure in Sydney, and you will still pay for it forever.

Very, very sad. People are hurting

Another example of why privatisation Does not work. Some shareholder somewhere has just got money from the government for doing sweet Eff all.

Disability sector should have never been privatized. The cracks are already beginning to show.

Basically due to the cost

Blind fredy could see from the start that this was going to happen eventually, another L N P, fuck up.

When this happens where do these peoples records go? How is there any consistency and follow through?

Privatisation, another word to describe a succession of leeches waiting to suck your money as you go through some process to get help......it will be minimal, as they need to make a profit😓

Who says we don't have human right issues in Australia.

it was never going to work in other than Sydney because there wasnt enough people using it but if they cant do country they cant run it at all. govt should take it back.

Another inhumane act from our grubberment. Shame on you! 😱

blame our bloody useless premier as she is one that agreed to privatise etc, and if she can`t put a plaque on it she dosn`t want it, dosn`t care

Like GW to put some Government Services back on and let people power decide 🏄‍♂️

Come to Australia you have a job!!!

When has privatisation of anything ever been anything but a fiasco?!

Bring back Homecare

how is this a market how pathological

Liberal privatisation failure from the start

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Public Service Association of NSW

4 days ago

DON’T GET AMBUSHED AT WORK

Never allow yourself to be ambushed by a corridor conversation or an office chat that turns out to be the
beginning of a performance, disciplinary or misconduct
matter.

Your union has developed a number of helpful hints to assist you.

See page 8 of the current issue of the PSA's quarterly magazine, Red Tape,

Visit the PSA's website or call us on 1300 772 679 if you need advice or support. ... See MoreSee Less