Welcome back to school – May 2018 (PDF version)

By now, most SAS Staff members will have returned from vacation and are settling in for another busy school term. The PSA hopes you enjoyed your break and are feeling refreshed.

A number of SAS Staff conferences took place on Monday 30 April 2018. The PSA participated in many of these. This provided an opportunity for members to raise concerns and provide feedback in an informal setting.

HR/Payroll rollout

SAS Staff members will be aware the PSA has been advocating strongly that the serious issues already identified with the first release of the new HR/Payroll system need to be addressed prior to other schools moving to the new system.

Another tranche of schools were due to come online with the new system on 10 May 2018, which would mean that 50 per cent of schools would be using the new system. The PSA told the DoE this would be chaotic given the state of the new system.

The DoE has been asked to halt further progress of schools onto the new system. This was previously reported to members in this bulletin found HERE which the union distributed to members in the last week of last term.

At the last meeting with the DoE on this issue, the PSA asked the DoE suspend Release 3 until such time as improvements had been implemented and tested. DoE also committed to sharing feedback from the 32 schools currently undergoing a further review.

The DoE undertook to provide formal advice on this request by COB Friday, 4 May 2018.

After attending a conference, members have reported to the PSA that the DoE announced that Release 3 and 4 have been rescheduled to 5 July and 30 August 2018.

This decision falls in line with the position advocated by the PSA for already overworked SAS Staff who continue to be burdened and in some cases, are still floundering with other aspects of LMBR implementation.

The PSA has not been officially advised of the revised dates for further rollout by the DoE.

Rather than alleviate your concerns about a system which the PSA considers at this point remains unfit for purpose – the DoE has failed to communicate with its employees and the PSA in a timely and responsive fashion.

The PSA will issue another bulletin to members on receipt of official communication from DoE.

Leave history

Members are again reminded that prior to moving onto the new system, they must do two things. Firstly, please take a screen dump of your current leave balances. Secondly, generate a full leave history via ESS.

Your leave history will not be imported into the new system. At some point, the old system will be retired and you will no longer be able to access your leave history.

This issue has already impacted on some members and the PSA has been working closely with HR to rectify anomalies as they arise. However, unless you have taken the time to generate a screen shot of your leave balances and your leave history, it will be harder to ensure that any errors are corrected.

Get your colleagues to join the PSA HERE. United we bargain, divided we beg.

If you have any issues or enquiries, please contact our Member Support Centre on 1300 772 679.