Office of Environment and Heritage – NPWS Restructure – June 2018 (PDF version)

The NPWS restructure is nearing completion. A large number of roles have been deleted and recreated at lower grades. Members are advised they should NOT undertake functions of these higher-graded roles that have been deleted if they are occupying a newly created lower-graded role. The PSA directs members to work to the duties as indicated in their new role description. If members are asked to undertake duties of higher graded role they should contact the PSA.

Further to this, all field roles are now at Phase 3. There were about 800 applicants for the FOGO roles with 60 offers made to date. Field Supervisor roles have been interviewed and Field Officer 1/4 roles will be interviewed soon. Offers to applicants for the SFS 3 roles are imminent

In the clerical classification there were 300 applicants for the Clerk 5/6 roles and 500 applicants for the Clerk 3/4 roles. Any remaining unfilled clerical roles at the higher grades will be recruited locally by Directors outside of the FNPWS program.

Salary maintenance

The PSA has negotiated three-month salary maintenance for members who have taken roles at a lower grade due to the restructure. If members are not being paid salary maintenance and believe they are entitled to it, they should contact the HR.

Overpayments

Some members have been mistakenly overpaid due to issues with the SAP payroll system. However, when recovering these overpayments, members advised the monies have been deducted in one instalment.

This should not occur. OEH should write to the person advising of an overpayment and arrange some type of payment plan. If this is not the case, contact HR or alternatively the PSA member support. Further to this it was confirmed by OEH that if the monies are taken in a lump sum by payroll they should be returned to the member and a payment plan negotiated.

Performance/misconduct meetings

The PSA has been advised by members they are being requested to attend performance and misconduct meetings with little notice. If you are directed by management to attend such meetings with little or no notice, advise management that you request a support person to be present when discussing performance or misconduct concerns.

Role descriptions

Some members were concerned that role descriptions were not available for some new roles. At our recent Joint Consultative Committee meeting, OEH advised all role descriptions for the DPE cluster are available on the intranet. If you cannot locate your role description, please contacts HR.

Casual employees acting in temporary on-going roles

The PSA has been advised that members have been engaged in temporary roles but remunerated under casuals’ conditions of employment. The definition of a casual is that they’re engaged on an ‘on call’ basis. If members believe that they’re been engaged on a continual basis (for example, as a temporary employee) they should contact the PSA.