FACS Industrial Bulletin – OneFACS Realignment – 5 June 2015 (PDF version)

PSA is concerned OneFACS change plan will trigger mass spill and fill

The PSA has been invited to comment on the Department of Family and Community Services draft OneFACS change plan for non-executive staff. This is part of the Department’s consultation process. To read the draft click here

If implemented, the draft plan will see large numbers of ongoing and temporary staff pooled together and forced to compete for jobs where fewer roles exist in the new OneFACS structure.

While the Department agreed to a program of voluntary redundancy for senior staff, similar arrangements have not been offered to non-executive staff.

In April, the PSA wrote to the FACS Board recommending an iterative change process, which included:

• an expression-of-interest process for voluntary redundancy
• maintaining, wherever possible, the assignment of ongoing staff in suitable ongoing roles
• internal recruitment for promotional/residual vacant roles including long-term temporary staff (both GSE compliant and s27 & 86A PSEM Act staff)
• job/voluntary redundancy swaps.

Our proposal would ensure the Department has the best opportunity to match staff to their preference for either ongoing employment or voluntary redundancy. It would allow the Department to factor this information into its budgeting and final structural design.
Before determining our final response however, we’d like to hear from affected staff.

We will be holding staff briefings at Ashfield and Liverpool over the coming weeks to discuss these issues. The first of these briefings will be held in Ashfield:

When:    12.30pm, 11 June 2015

Where:   Meeting Room 0.1,
                4-6 Cavill Avenue, Ashfield

We have invited FACS HR to address any questions you might have in relation to the change-management process at these meetings and are awaiting confirmation of their attendance.

We have also recently met with the Hon. Brad Hazzard, Minister for Family and Community Service. We have raised public interest concerns relating to the Department’s decision to fill current vacancies through external recruitment in circumstances where the proposed reorganisation aims to substantially ‘reduce employee-related costs’ (jobs losses). In response, the Minister asked the Department to consider delaying further external recruitment.

For more information, or if you like to arrange a workplace meeting, you can contact your local delegate or our FACS Team Leader Siobhan Callinan at or Senior Industrial Advocate, Thane Pearce at .