As members would be aware CSNSW has started the Prison Bed Capacity Adjustment Program (PBCAP).
Launch presentations have been held at Dawn De Loas CC, Mary Wade CC and Silverwater Women’s CC this week.
The presentations are based on a CSNSW analysis of what they believe the centres need. It does not mean that the Committees cannot fight for every position to win back positions.
The three presentations explain the rationale behind the inmates in their centres and the reasons for the move. After the presentations the staff get an activity statement detailing the posts PBCAP believe the centre should have. This is distributed to all staff and placed on the M:Drive for all staff to review.
Committees are then formed and that is when we fight for the positions that have been deemed not necessary to run the centre safely, maintain security and to meet the KPIs.
Dawn De Loas CC
Dawn De Loas CC is proposed to house C1, C2 and C3 security inmates. The inmates will be housed in H block and Area 2 that will move from females to men.
The proposed loss of staff for this change is:
Governor – 1
SAS – 5
SCO – 3
CO – 46
SOS – 4
OS – 4
Mary Wade CC
Mary Wade CC will be managed by DDL MOS and it will be converted from a female centre to a male security C1U centre.
The proposed loss of staff for this change is:
MOS – 1
SAS – 1
SCO – 6
CO – 30
Silverwater Women’s CC
Silverwater Women’s CC will lose double ups/triple ups and Area 2 will go to DDL.
The proposed loss of staff for this change is, CSNSW have taken into account our existing full time employment vacancies in these numbers:
CO – 11
The centre does lose a SCO position however due to existing SCO full time employment vacancies there is opportunity for 3 SCOs to transfer to SWCC.
HR Issues
Staff will be given, via email, the vacancies for the state and the preference form.
Staff will be able to put in three preferences and 1 can be to a country location. Staff will not get the transferred officers package unless there is not a vacancy in the metropolitan location. For example, if there is no SOS position in the metropolitan location for them to go to but there is at a country location.
Staff will have 4 weeks to put in their preferences. The POVB Executive will meet regularly with Human Resources to go through the preferences and get staff to give their preferred locations.
Casuals to Permanent
The POVB Executive recognise and understand the anxiety and stress that PBCAP is having on the casual membership across the state.
We know that for the past 16 months, due to Benchmarking and PBCAP, casuals have been in limbo waiting for permanent roles to come on line. We understand that casuals have been keeping centres operational by doing extended temporary appointments.
With PBCAP the redeployment of staff from affected centres means that the vacancies we thought casuals could get as ongoing roles, has been limited.
Human Resources has said though that PBCAP for Long Bay Hospital and MSPC 1-3 will not mean that staff in those locations will have to be relocated. Any staff loss in that location will be absorbed in the current vacancies.
There is a current talent pool for 2019-2020. This talent pool runs out in November 2020.
HR need to formulate anther talent pool and the POVB Executive have just given feedback to Human Resources on the EOI that is to come out.
Every casual in the 2019-2020 talent pool will need to put in an EOI for the
2020-2021 talent pool. If they do not get a job from the 2019-2020 talent pool prior to it running out, they will get preference in the 2020-2021 talent pool.
This new talent pool will give casuals in the existing talent pool the ability to evaluate their preferences as their original preference may need to be changed to look at where the permanent opportunities may be located.
A quick evaluation of the vacancy list provided to the PSA shows approximately 250 vacancies across the state. Not all of these vacancies will be taken up by staff who have to relocate to other centres due to PBCAP.
Now that we have the vacancies, and after the 4 weeks for staff to put in preferences, we will be working with HR in placing staff to other centres and look at centres that will have vacancies after the placements and get those filled by casual to permanent as soon as possible.
We will also look at the vacancies in country locations and look at filling some of the vacancies as we do not think that there will be a huge interest in metropolitan staff wanting to move to country locations as they do not get TECA.
These are trying and uncertain times for permanent staff and casual staff. We ask that you bear with us in trying to look after the best interests all of the membership.
Contact Details
Nicole Jess
Chairperson
0427 609 199
Jason Charlton
Vice Chairperson
0401 500 976
Amanda Cotter
Secretary
0404 042 600
Thor Sutherland
Assistant Secretary
0447 633 476
Darren King
Country Vice Chair
0407 935 039
Natalie Howes
Country Vice Chair
0407 011 441
David McCauley
POVB Industrial Officer
0419 022 767
David Bartle
POVB Industrial Officer
0418 425 976
Trish O’Brien
Welfare Officer
0412 120 391