Congratulations on all your efforts during 2023, members are now heading for a well earned winter break . With a busy term 2 the PSA would like to share details of some major wins for PSA members.

With the Election of the Minns Labor Government in March NSW Education has a New Minister Deputy Premier Car and a new Education Secretary Mr Dizdar both who have hit the ground running and flagging in numerous welcome changes.

Consultation

The PSA and Schools delegates have seen a remarkable change in tone and meaningful consultation under new leadership for Education. Joint Consultative Committee meetings are progressing well and the following issues foreshadowing major change.

Pay Rise SASS Award 2023

On June 29 PSA members voted to accept the current pay offer made by the government to all PSA members in schools and other Public Sector agencies. The offer is for a 4.0 per cent increase in salary and salary related allowance for 1 year; also a 0.5 per cent increase in to the Superannuation Guarantee Contribution.

The parties have agreed to a consent variation to the Crown Employees ( School Administrative and Support staff) Award 2022 for an operative term of a year.

The department has also agreed to engage in consultation in relation to a number of issues including  Review of departmental policies; School Administrative Improvement Program: Temporary Workforce Transition ( this includes school staffing formula) and Student Behaviour Policy. The PSA will write to the department with a number of issues currently being finalised for consideration. These details will be reported in a further Bulletin in term 3.

Temporary Workforce Transition

Recommencing on 2 May the offering of permanency to temporary school staff has seen 9 phases of offers across the state.

By 28 June some 7000 offers have been accepted by temporary school staff . Including approximately 400 Aboriginal Education officers and 179 General Assistants. SASS members make up approximately 50% of offers.

Members who have accepted an offer will receive by email an appointment notice and welcome email which also contains onboarding details .

Regarding Appointment dates members need to refer to the Phase in which an offer is made. Phase 1 is Day 1 Term 3 2023

Phases 2 – 3 Day 1 Term 4 2023 Phases 4 – 9 Day 1 Term 1 2024 . Please note the PSA will be negotiating revised criteria for the second tranche of permanency offers which will operate from term 4 2023. During term 3 final details will be subject to a future PSA bulletin for members.

General Assistants Laundry Allowance

In May 2023 the department confirmed that the Laundry Allowance is a condition under the Crown Employees (Public Service Conditions of Employment Reviewed Award 2009) see previous bulletin HERE.

Whilst this is a win for the PSA , disappointingly the department failed to advise of payroll difficulties that have delayed the backpay for members. The PSA has been assured the 3 affected legacy payroll systems should be updated and operational by August. A Communication will be issued to staff during July as to details for members to access backpay via the Education departments payroll system.

Violence in schools

The department briefed the PSA during June that it is commencing a Work Health and Safety 2023-26 review that will see improvements to the WHS reporting systems both the hotline and online reporting. This will include more funding to engage more staff to support schools manage Incidents and WHS issues on a daily basis. More funding has been provided by the government to improve WHS performance within Education.

An Occupational Violence in Schools Taskforce has been established to deal with the many difficult issues that are increasingly being reported in schools. The first meeting occurred on 19 June 2023 including the PSA , NSW Teachers Federation and other stakeholders.

Outstanding issues

The PSA has been meeting the department in relation to a number of major workload issues particularly Administration Marketplace Panel where the PSA Schools DC executive still has major concerns with the proposal and rollout. A recent meeting failed to satisfy the PSA and a member survey will be sent to affected members at the resumption of term 3 to gauge views in relation to the AMPS proposal . Please note the current ban is still in place until further notice.

In relation to the School Administration Improvement program the PSA meets regularly with the departments reform team to discuss this pilot which has been extended to include up to 400 schools. The pilot is trying to reduce the admin burden on teachers and engage additional admin staff to support teachers spend more time in learning and teaching activities. The PSA has requested the data to show how this is evolving and impacts on PSA members.

A new issue has emerged around the Simplifying the Budget(StB) initiative affecting school administrative staff. PSA raised the issue with the DoE reform team this week. The team has given an undertaking to initiate discussion between the PSA and the Finance directorate who manage the StB project.