Blacktown State Office DEC bulletin – 16 Nov 2015 (PDF version)

On 14 October 2015, a PSA meeting was held at Blacktown State Office. Representatives were your PSA delegate, Phill Musgrave, with PSA Organiser Marisa Bosco.

Summarised below are some of the items that were discussed:

Flexible Working Hours Agreement

The new Department of Education Flexible Working Hours Agreement

Meetings have been held between the PSA staff, delegates and the Department in regards to the new proposed agreement on flexible working hours. These meetings are occurring on a weekly/fortnightly basis throughout October and November.

Main concerns that have been raised are:

• Bandwidth of hours; following discussion with the PSA, the Department has amended the draft FWHA so that the bandwidth of hours for the majority of the Department will continue to be 7:30am to 6:00pm not the proposed of 7:00am to 8:00pm
• Non-payment upon exit; under the proposed FWHA, accumulated flex days will no longer be paid out to an employee on separation, this item is still under discussion
• Banking of hours; under the proposed FWHA, banking of hours is now not an option. Members will have until 4 March 2016 to exhaust their banking time. Employees will also be able to carry forward 42 hours (previously only 10 hours could be carried forward).

To view the proposed draft agreement click here

The Capability Framework and Performance Development Framework

The Public Service Commission (PSC) is introducing a series of reforms, including the Capability Framework and the Performance Development Framework, which is aimed at producing a high performance culture in the NSW public sector.

The PSA is keen to empower members and make sure that the reforms are carried out in a way that is consistent and equitable.

Workloads

Various members have raised concerns around current workloads. Members indicated they would like to hold a specific members meeting around workloads in order to workshop the issues.

This will allow members to work closely with their delegate and PSA Organiser to help identify and determine the impact of workloads across the wider workplace.

Once a date has been confirmed a meeting notice will be sent to all members. Please invite non members as membership forms will be available for them to join.

Rights and entitlements

Of the many benefits of being a PSA member, one of the most useful is you can access expert advice on your rights and entitlements in the workplace through our Member Support Centre.

If there is enough interest from members, we can also arrange to run Lunch’n’Learn workshops to go through a number of Frequently Asked Questions, such as sick leave and other leave entitlements, overtime, secondary employment, workers compensation and a number of other issues that affect your everyday work.