Your union, the PSA was invited to a meeting with the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) Senior Management at 9.00am on 24 February 2021 regarding the proposed structure for the Business Administration and Support (BAS) review. The PSA was also provided with a final change management plan in March for the organisational change of EPA and BAS functions. The Change Management Plan can be found here

During this meeting the PSA was advised by the EPA Executive that in the new structure Environmental Officer (EO) roles would be directly assigned to EO 4 roles, and the EO 5 roles would be directly assigned to the EO 6 roles. Throughout these meetings the PSA advised staff who didn’t want to be directly assigned to higher grade roles that they could not be forced, because the capabilities for higher graded roles were different than their current grades.

In the proposed structure there are only two EO 2 roles available and this is despite there currently being seven EO2 staff. The PSA have also been advised by the EPA there are currently 46 roles that are unfilled after Phase 3.

Whilst we support the additional roles the PSA still has concerns that these were roles that were originally removed from the previous structure.

We are aware there are a large number staff who were unsuccessful in gaining roles during phase 1, 2 and 3. Members have had to endure an extremely rigorous and stressful process.

The Change Management Plan stated that excess staff may be managed in accordance with Managing Excess Employees Policy after Phase 3. The PSA understands that due to the large amount of vacant roles after Phase 3, the EPA has advised unsuccessful staff that they will now be directly assigned to roles that were formally removed from the BAS Change Management Plan.

The PSA has not been provided with the updated Change Management Plan nor have the EPA engaged the PSA in any proper consultation process. Currently there has only been an information session to advise the PSA that all affected staff would be placed in roles.

The PSA will be seeking the assistance of the Industrial Relations Commission in the absence of any proper consultation with note to the reintroduction of roles and classifications that were deleted in the Change Management Plan.

The PSA will continue to advocate for members throughout this process.

Please encourage your colleagues to join the PSA today at psa.asn.au/join