DEC Industrial Bulletin – June/July 2014
Latest news
The separation of DEC and TAFE has led the PSA to seek clarification from the Department regarding what transitional arrangements are being made and the impact this could have on staff seeking redeployment and joint consultative committees.
People and Services Directorate Restructure
This restructure has moved to the final step of the placement process. As this restructure is taking in the former HR Directorate which was meant to introduce SAP HR Shared Services in 2010 as part of the LMBR reforms, there is an unusually high number of temporary employees (approximately 100) where the usual number to be considered is normally less than 10.
The Department’s position for consideration of long-term temporaries (previously section 31 appointments under the PSEMA) was that it would lead to a significant disadvantage to the majority of temporary employees. The Department decided not to implement step 5 of the placement process and went straight to external advertising after consideration of excess employees.
The PSA met with a number of members who are impacted by this stage of the restructure, particularly in the ‘Casual Direct’ area at the Blacktown State Office and is following up on a number of issues, particularly the eligibility for a severance payment for a number of long-term temporary employees who were casual conversions.
Additionally, the PSA has also become aware that the Department is trying to get a variation to the bandwidth of hours currently worked by staff in Casual Direct to start from 6.00 am to avoid current penalty rates paid to staff.
Asset Management Directorate – Phase II Restructure
The PSA was advised that the restructure has been finalised and 11 staff received advice on 18 June 2014 declaring them excess.
Finance Shared Services Restructure
It was anticipated that in early June proposed organisational charts and draft role descriptions would become available for the beginning of the consultation process after the feedback from the initial functional chart.
The Department has now advised that it will not be in a position to release draft organisational charts until July /August. The timeframe put forward would see the new structure in place in early 2015.
Office of Education Review (incorporating State Training Services) Restructure
Again, this has been a long anticipated restructure. The Department has yet to begin consultation with the PSA. We have been advised that the State Training Services part of the review which was aborted last year is likely to be brought forward.
Technology Support Officers – End of DER Program
With the announcement that the NSW Department of Education will not continue the funding for the Commonwealth DER program many TSO’s finished their employment on 27 June 2014.
On Friday 6 June 2014 the Department released an advice to Principals on how to retain a TSO role in their school.
If you are being retained by your school it should be as a TSO – Clerk Grade General Scale and the duties should be in line with your previous position description under the DER program.
The PSA is also concerned that schools should not expect or ask for any of the TSO’s work to be done by SASS or any other staff in schools.
Finally, the PSA is providing advice to those TSO’s not continuing their employment who may be eligible for a severance payment.
Early Childhood Education and Care Directorate – Advisory Group Management Meeting 18 June
The PSA ECEC advisory group meets regularly with management to raise members’ issues and review how the directorate is operating.
Unfortunately, at this time we still have no clear indication as to when the proposed restructure for the ECEC Directorate will be ready for discussion. This does impact temporary employees as it is difficult to provide any certainty until we know what the proposed structure is.
ECEC Visits and AG Elections
Organisers will shortly be arranging to visit metro ECEC offices to meet with members. We will also be calling for nominations from PSA members to be on the advisory group. If you are interested in being part of the advisory group or simply want to know more about what is involved send us an email to
TAFE/DEC Joint Consultative Committee Update
A report was provided to brief the JCC in May on the progress of SAP Finance and HR.
TAFE/DEC SAP Finance upgrade
TAFE + DEC Corporate replacing current SAP Finance system on 1 July 2014 which will allow for proper accounting at a business unit level, such as:
• Balance sheet reporting
• Profit + Loss Management
Along with the functionality upgrades for most users it will be a like for like swap. The current status for the project is ‘amber’ and there are only a relatively small number of issues still to be resolved but none of these are expected to push out the expected delivery date of 1 July 2014.
The old system will be closed for transactions, but will still be available as a ‘Brown system” and all new financial year accounting will be in the new system.
Pilot training for the new SAP finance system such as ‘Train the Trainer’ – through May, end user training in June in line with its introduction has been developed and tested.
SALM -TAFE
This has a current target date for delivery on 7 October 2014. Its current status is ‘Red’ and there are certain critical periods if the target delivery date cannot be met (such as November – March) in which it cannot be implemented due to the operational requirements in TAFE.
LMBR will be reviewing over the next 6 weeks as to the status re: target date of 7 October. LMBR will be conducting a review over the next 6 weeks in re the status of the target date of 7 October.
SALM training will be similar to the schools which will be a blended approach of face to face and a combination of computer/ application based module training, with each individual TAFE implementing training around its needs.
There has been 1 pilot run for SALM but there will be two main waves:
– Early training
– Delta training