Bulletin for Community Corrections – March 2019 (PDF version)

JCC Update

On 13 February 2019 representatives of Community Corrections management met with your PSA delegates as part of an ongoing Joint Consultative Committee. Several matters were raised on your behalf, including:

Workload review

The PSA holds serious concerns about the contemporary accuracy of the current workload values in both Community and Parole Unit Caseloads, including how these values are weighted across specific time frames and how they are presented on the workload reports available to staff. The PSA has successfully pursued a set of side meetings with the intent to re-examine the values placed on particular work processes.

Workload remains however a serious and ongoing concern for your union, and will be the focus of much of this year’s activity. You will hear from your union electronically regarding this issue soon, so please ensure your contact details are up to date.

Trainee Community Corrections Officer

CSNSW is attempting to downgrade a CCO’s pay to a Grade 4 whilst undertaking their Certificate IV first-year officer assessments.

Your union strongly opposes this move as it has implications for work value equity and is based on a faulty rationale. CSNSW’s claim is that the CCO position was graded with holding the Certificate IV. However, CCOs have been Graded 5/6 since 2004 which is prior to its introduction. Further, similar roles such as Custodial Case Managers (who also complete a Cert IV) and SAPOs (who DON’T require a Cert IV), and whose capabilities under the Capability Framework are at a lower level than that of a CCO, remain a Grade 5/6.

CSNSW has been advised of our objections in correspondence attached and the Community Corrections Departmental Committee (CCDC) delegates have unanimously endorsed a dispute in the Industrial Relations Commission being pursued if necessary. Stay tuned.

2020 positions

There have been inconsistences across all districts and even within some offices with how members in 2020 funded positions are transferred into ongoing roles. Verbal assurances had been provided by the Assistant Commissioner that should an ongoing role become available at a location where there was a staff member in an equivalent 2020 funded role, that staff member would be “automatically” moved into the ongoing role, with the 2020 role back filled. This has not, however, been occurring in practice.

The PSA has agitated CSNSW to create a clear and transparent policy with regard to the issue. Instead, CSNSW has taken six months to produce a convoluted 25-page document that adds an additional merit selection process in order for staff to transfer at grade within and between locations, and places onerous additional application processes on staff and managers. The document essentially will result in a Transfer List and instead of being ranked by time on the list, it will be graded by merit.

The PSA has rejected the proposed process put forward by CSNSW, alternatively demanding that any process not be onerous on CCOs and that attempts at implementing a further merit selection process be removed.

Review of regrading of manager roles

Your union has requested that CSNSW review the current grading of all 9/10 Community Corrections manager roles, as it is the belief that some meet the threshold criteria for a re-grading to 11/12.

We will keep members informed of the progress of this issue.

Community Corrections admin induction and training

A Working Group has been formed due to issues raised in August 2018 concerning the lack of structured induction and training regarding new Community Corrections admin staff. This Working Group has met on a number of occasions to document what such training would incorporate and the issue will be pursued vigorously by the PSA.

Don’t drop out of touch!

You could be missing out on being advised of important information!

Update your details with the PSA! Just go to the PSA website psa.asn.au, click on the “Change of Address” tab on the right-hand side of the page, and complete the fields as required. That’s it! It will take less time than drinking a cup of coffee and means your Departmental Committee and the PSA can continue to keep you informed of important issues.

Departmental Committee vacancies

Interested in becoming a delegate of the Community Corrections Departmental Committee? Currently, there a couple of vacancies on the committee. Leave is available in the award for union delegate activities, and we are stronger as a vocation for everyone’s involvement. View our DC contact list HERE.

If you are interested in applying, please submit an “Expression of Interest”, providing a background of your experience and what you can offer to help the committee advance the interests and causes of members. EOIs can be emailed to the Secretary, Ben Gillies – .

Additionally, we are looking to establish a network of PSA Liaison Officers, effectively a workplace delegate in every location who can summarise and forward local issues and distribute information from the PSA. Please let your local CCDC delegate on the attached list know if you are interested in filling this important role, with training and training paid leave available through the PSA.