POVB Overseers bulletin – October 2017 (PDF version)

MRRC

There are currently changes at MRRC with CSI and Industries. Dave McCauley and Jason Charlton met with Steve Thorpe two weeks ago and raised a motion that was passed at MRRC regarding a freeze on employing externally until the MRRC is presented with the benchmarking figures/plan.

They showed him a recruitment advertisement (trade – overseers metro & regional) that closed on Saturday, 30 September 2017 and explained that to place additional staff at Silverwater would cause much anxiety to our members. We also questioned the salary listed, as it looked to be incorrect.

Steve Thorpe made a guarantee no overseer will lose their job. However, he did state that there will be some major changes at Silverwater. He will come out to the MRRC and meet with staff in coming weeks and tell everyone of his plans and answer any questions.

The following was also discussed:

• Textiles possibly being moved to Goulburn

• Refurbishment of the laundry

• Move maintenance to Textiles with staff numbers to increase for FM

• A meal re-therm oven where maintenance currently is so meals can be reheated on site

• A new clothes drying system in textiles

• He is certain there will be more jobs.

The POVB Executive will continue to meet with Steve Thorpe on a regular basis.

Facility maintenance

PSA/POVB has raised with CSNSW the outsourcing of facility maintenance in some centres. We have written to Minister Elliott stating we are against the outsourcing of Facility Maintenance and in this letter we have given examples of how CSNSW/CSI can do the job better and cheaper.

When we have a response, we will put this out to members.

Conversion from overseer to Custodial

Previously CSNSW had a policy that was on the intranet in regards to overseers being able to convert to Custodial. It covered issues such as what rank they would be when converting.

This policy has been removed from the intranet. This was raised by an overseer delegate at Cessnock, which is currently going through a benchmarking process that affects overseers. Overseers at Cessnock who may have wanted to convert to Custodial did not get the correct information.

This issue was raised at the Consultative last Wednesday and CSNSW has informed PSA/POVB the new policy will be published on the intranet in the coming weeks. CSNSW has stated the reason the policy had to be changed is due to the GSE bill. Previously when overseers converted to Custodial it was at the expense of a considerable drop in salary and under the GSE bill this cannot happen now.

Once we are aware of the new policy on the intranet, it will be noted in a bulletin.

Benchmarking

Last week Emu Plains and Dillwynia had their meetings regarding benchmarking.

For those centres, it means a reduction in Industries:

Emu Plains: – Loss of 1 SOS and 1 OS

Dillwynia: – Loss of 1 OS

We were informed at both centres these positions are currently vacant. It was noted at EPCC that there are few industries at that location. This impacts on the inmate’s purposeful day and CSNSW will be looking at this issue over the first phase of benchmarking, as this will affect staffing numbers.

Over the coming weeks, we have benchmarking meetings at:

Grafton CC: – 10 October 2017

Glen Innes: – 11 October 2017

MSPC: – 19 October 2017

Long Bay Hospital: – 25 October 2017

SPC: – 26 October 2017

Any changes to overseers will be noted in future bulletins.