Housing Services: Inner West & South East Sydney Joint Consultative Committee meeting
The first quarterly Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) meeting for 2026 was held on 9 March 2026 for the Inner West & South East Sydney district. Public Service Association (PSA) industrial staff attend these meetings with workplace delegates and district management.
JCCs are an important platform to address workplace concerns and members are encouraged to reach out to PSA delegates and staff about any workplace issues they would like raised at the meetings. They are an opportunity for members to speak out and ask any questions they may have about workplace rights. Please note only collective issues are discussed at JCCs. Individual matters are managed privately.
Key discussions on 9 March included:
Recruitment and backfilling
The PSA asked how the district is going with backfilling frontline roles. Management explained that they continue to hire above establishment because there is a lot of turnover; however, unplanned leave is more difficult to manage as is planned leave of longer than 2 weeks. (More on leave below.)
Housing Services has a clear process around how to fill temporary vacancies of up to 26 weeks. Members are encouraged to engage with this process and to please reach out with any questions or concerns you’d like raised at the next JCC. Backfilling of roles remains an issue for our members.
New recruits continue to complete the rolling 8-week recruitment process. To better support the transition into the district, the director meets with the new recruits when they are hired, when they start the role and 3 months into the role.
Management said they continue to make direct appointments for staff who meet the criteria and have been in roles for a long time.
Workloads
As the dust continues to settle on the Functional Review, members have been reaching out about workload pressures. Management said they are aware of the high workloads and to help support staff, they’ve turned the focus onto continual improvement rather than targets. They said they want the emphasis to be on people working to capacity. The aim is to build capability so work can be done more efficiently and effectively.
The message from management is that they are there to help staff manage capacity and that the offices work together as a district to support each other. Members are encouraged to speak with managers about workloads and have confirmed in an email what the priority is and what can wait. It’s understood that teams cannot pick up work in other areas of the business without having to drop other work.
NSW SafeWork includes important information on its website about workplace stress and members are encouraged to speak to PSA delegates and staff if they have questions or concerns.
Staff development
Training around managing aggressive behaviour, including on the phones, on the counter and in the field, will be rolled out to anyone who hasn’t completed it yet. Management said they’d also expect all staff to do a refresher course.
The executive director of Housing Services confirmed with the PSA in another meeting that the workplace violence refresher training has started to be rolled out across the state, and that all staff will participate in face-to-face training this year.
Work Health and Safety
Management confirmed it encourages staff to lodge Safety Suite reports and that there continues to be training around its purpose. That includes how to do investigations. Management said it is being actioned in a timely manner and that most are around client verbal abuse.
The PSA reminds members to report all incidents, no matter how small they may seem. Records of your concerns within the department support the PSA to make a stronger case for assistance.
Psychosocial Action Plan
The district’s Psychosocial Action Plan has been finalised and approved. It’s now available in TRIM for all staff to access.
It’s important that members know about and understand the Psychosocial Action Plan as it will provide important agreed actions about how to manage psychosocial hazards such as role overload, workplace bullying, work-related violence and burnout.
The PSA would expect the Psychosocial Action Plan to comply with SafeWork’s Code of Practice.
Leave
Management explained there is a process to follow for leave and that staff shouldn’t book holidays until it’s approved. The PSA understands that managing leave can be difficult and encourages members to give as much notice as possible to assist with planning. However, there will also be instances when members aren’t able to do so, and these should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please reach out to your workplace delegates or PSA organiser if you have any questions around your leave requests or entitlements.
Housing survey
The PSA has a housing survey open at the moment and we encourage all our members to complete it. It should take around 10 minutes and will help the PSA better understand the housing issues and needs of your communities so we can advocate on your behalf. The survey is open until 31 March.
The next JCC meeting is scheduled for June. Members are encouraged to share any issues they have with local delegates, particularly if they have anything to add to the topics raised here.
Contacts
Delegates
PSA Industrial Staff