Home Care Extension of bans – September 16, 2015 (PDF version)
The NSW Government and FACS continue to treat Home Care staff like commodities and will transfer you to Australian Unity without your consent. This action takes away your freedom and right to choose to stay in the public service, transfer to Australian Unity or access redundancy. They also refuse to protect your conditions of employment with a legally enforceable deed.
These actions by the Government and FACS forced your Departmental Committee to extend the current bans by imposing additional bans.
Members are directed not to perform the following tasks:
- Transferring MAC information to CIS
- Phone and field assessment
- Assisted boarding house assessment and referrals for accommodation
- Downloading of service plans from VHC portals and transmitting to branches
- Answering enquiries from clients relating to the transfer or privatisation of Home Care.”
What is a legally enforceable deed and how does it differ from the letter of guarantee?
A legally enforceable deed is an agreement signed by the NSW Government (FACS), Australian Unity (the new service provider) and the PSA. If the new provider decides to change your conditions of employment within the guaranteed period, the PSA can go to the Fair Work Commission to challenge them.
The letter of guarantee promised by FACS – similar to the Memorandum of Understanding – is not as good as the paper it is written on.
Australian Unity can make changes to your conditions of employment or introduce amendments to those conditions at any time, as early as a week or even a day after the transfer, and there is no recourse available for either the employee or the union to challenge these changes through Fair Work.