Housing Response Centre and Maintenance Response Centre Joint Consultative Committee October update
The quarterly Joint Consultative Committee meeting (JCC) was held on 16 October 2025 for the Housing Response Centre (HRC) and Maintenance Response Centre (MRC). JCCs are an important platform for discussions on matters affecting our members and PSA staff attended with your elected delegates and leadership from the HRC / MRC.
Key discussions on 16th October included:
Recruitment
Leadership confirmed new recruits for the MRC, who have completed their initial training. Recruitment for backfilling temporary vacancies was also confirmed – it will follow the same process as the Housing Services’ districts. This means vacant roles of more than eight weeks will be selected from DCJ talent pool for eligible internal staff. If no selection is made, it will proceed to an EOI. Vacant roles of more than 26 weeks will also be selected from DCJ talent pool. If no selection is made, it will proceed to GSE comparative recruitment. Recruitment for ongoing higher-grade roles will also be taken from talent pools.
The HRC / MRC is also still in the process of moving temp roles to ongoing, and staff on secondments have been called back.
Register list
Leadership has agreed to create a register list for issues that haven’t been resolved through the standard pathway with the line manager. These issues can be escalated to the list, which will be shared with the PSA.
Recreation leave
Leadership explained that there are some thresholds for allocating recreation leave for the Christmas break and that there is a ballot period, but sometimes discussions can fall through the cracks. There has been additional challenges this year with allocating leave because of a new telephony system and new processes. Historical data is in the old system and needs to be accessed manually to help determine how many staff are needed throughout the holiday period.
Members are reminded to follow-up any discussions with their line manager.
Training
The PSA asked a question around training because members wanted to know why staff are asked to register for training early only to have it allocated at the last minute, putting them under the pump to get it completed. Leadership explained that the training is from DCJ not HRC / MRC, and that its rollout is a matter of timing and priority.
Members are reminded to speak with their line manager if they’re finding it difficult to complete the training in the allocated time.
Safety Suite
There’s been a reduction in open Safety Suite reports, leadership said, with issues being resolved faster.
Members are reminded to report all incidents – your safety at work is not negotiable.
That was the last JCC meeting with the HRC / MRC for 2025. Meetings for 2026 will be scheduled in the new year.
Members are encouraged to share any issues they have with local delegates, particularly around any of the points raised here.
Contacts
Delegates
PSA Industrial Staff