On Tuesday 25 October, your PSA met with HPCA as part of our ongoing consultation (Joint Consultative Committee) about member concerns.

We saw a big shift and sense of recognition from management at this meeting compared to previous JCC’s.

Key agreements: 

• Workshops about reasonable workloads with input from PSA and Wellbeing  
• Complexity Calculator Tools (measuring cases for allocations) standardised across Councils 
• HPCA to acknowledge and re-enforce issue of excessive workload in conversation with Directors, leaders and staff

 

Management will be holding workshops with input from the PSA and the Wellbeing Committee about what a reasonable caseload should look like, and the process for staff approaching TLs and senior management about work that cannot be reasonably completed (within reasonable hours) as they are now “well and truly focussed on this issue”. It was acknowledged that workshops would not be held by the end of year and that this will take some time to organise.

We discussed the complexity calculator tool that Nursing has developed to help measure case complexity and allocate appropriately. HPCA was very interested in further discussion and development of the tool with the view to implementation across the Councils.

In line with the complexity calculator, we discussed the PSA’s proposal for a cap on “active” cases, definitions for active and inactive, and that this may be a practical way to reduce psychosocial hazards (high, uncapped workloads) in the workplace. With changes to WHS legislation introduced by Safe Work Australia, there is a greater emphasis on employers taking action to minimise and manage risk.

The workload conversation went hand in hand with consideration of mental health and wellbeing, with HPCA stating they are looking at mental health training/l and support at present. Our persistence in bringing up employer responsibilities regarding safe work legislation and psychosocial hazards has reinforced the need for this, and we continue to push that it is excessive workload that is a key contributor to psychosocial risk.

The PSA offered to provide more specific actions about what needs to be addressed in the workload workshops and this will be discussed in members meetings.

This is a very positive shift, however we need to continue to hold HPCA to account by having as much input as possible in the workshops, and increasing support by getting more people to join the PSA. We can’t achieve this through JCC’s alone, we need member support to influence the workloads workshops. 

 

The PSA and Delegates are coming to Gladesville to meet with members and non-members and we need everyone’s help – please chat to your colleagues about what is happening in relation to our workload campaign, emphasise that fees are tax deductable and encourage them to join online at https://psa.asn.au/join/