Role Description update for Special Constables – March 2019 (PDF version)
Members will be aware the PSA has been pursuing a review of the Special Constables Role Description since work bans were implemented across SMU in June 2018. The previous update on negotiations to date is available HERE.
Your representatives have been working hard to persuade management to include the full range of your duties in your Role Description. It has taken a number of meetings and submissions to deal with how your duties should be described.
Following negotiations in November 2018, which resumed in February 2019, SMU has now provided the PSA with a response to a draft Role Description tabled by the PSA in February. This is an important step.
The draft Role Description meets our requirements, most importantly because it now includes for the first time the exercise of the powers of police constable, using the term “conferred law-enforcement powers”.
This term has been accepted by the Commissioner’s representatives as an appropriate way to refer to your police powers without risking confusion with the role of Police Officers.
Your PSA representatives will now meet with the Commander at the start of April to discuss the capability levels assigned to your role. The capability levels are all currently rated as “foundational”, but the PSA has a strong case that several of them should be rated as “intermediate”.
If we are successful, this will strengthen the case for a regrade of the positions and an increase in salary. Members will be advised of the outcome of the meeting.
The PSA would like to thank delegates for their continued hard work on this matter.
Other news
Delegate elections
A reminder that delegate elections will take place in early April with nominations closing on 30 April 2019.
Those wishing to nominate and vote in these elections will need to be financial members of the PSA as at 29 March 2019.
PSA Legal Fund
The PSA has launched a new Legal Fund for Special Constables and others working in the Justice Sector. The fund is modelled on a similar scheme already available to Prison Officers and provides a range of enhanced legal services for members commonly exposed to difficult and dangerous situations in the course of their employment.
Further information is available in our earlier bulletin HERE.
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