The quarterly Joint Consultative Committee meeting (JCC) was held on 27 June 2025 for Northern NSW, Mid North Coast and New England and was attended by the Public Service Association (PSA), your elected Delegates and Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) leadership. You can read the minutes HERE.

New flexible working policy

Since the last JCC, the PSA has been in discussion with District Executive as to what is Community Services definition of “frontline’ as per the new Flexible Work Policy. This information will now come down from Acting Deputy Secretary Lauren Dean at some stage.

In the meantime, nothing has changed regarding the Flexible Work Policy, members are entitled to Work from Home (WFH) and access their flexible work conditions. The PSA is aware that in this district there is a push to limit the number of excess hours that our members work and lose each flex period. The PSA agrees we don’t want our members to work excessive hours, however this should not be at the expense of your Flexible Work Conditions. Now is a timely reminder of your Flexible Work Conditions.

If a reasonable request to WFH or to access your Flexible Work Conditions is denied contact the PSA.

Section 91B responses

Since the start of the year the PSA has been raising this as a significant workload issue for Manager Casework (MCW) in this district. This is now a state issue and will be discussed at the state JCC. A working group has also been set up by DCJ to consider all interfaces with the family law court and provide options and solutions back to the Operational Executive Leadership group.

Delegates Paul Beeby and Louise Strange from our region have been asked to participate in this group. In the meantime, if you’re doing a response and it means you will lose hours then talk to your Manager Client Services and request overtime in advance. Members should not be losing hours due to these responses.

PSA Regional Organisers

Stephen Mears
Mik Smart
Rebecca Reilly