PSA delegates and industrial staff met with Homes NSW Northern management for our bi-monthly Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) on 2 March 2026.

The following items were discussed

• WHS Dashboards for December 2025 and January 2026
• Northern District HSR Forum
• Homes NSW WHS Project Officer – Greta Luci
• Current and ongoing vacancies
• Expression of Interest (EOI) Process
• Staff Development
• Functional Review
• PSA Issues
  • Use of work mobile phones
  • Referrals to Link 2 Home
  • Onboarding for SCSO
  • Day‑to‑Day Management of TA
  • Phone Lines
  • Newcastle Access & Demand
  • Portfolios
  • Reporting lines in Trim and in My Work Zone
  • PDP, Recruitment and EOI’s
  • Security Guard Tweed Heads Homes
  • What is the role of the WHS Project Officer
  • First Aid Officer Lismore (currently works part-time)

Functional Review

The Northern Districts review of the “functional review” is due for completion in May and Homes have advised that staff and the PSA will be given the opportunity to provide feedback. The PSA have started to compile feedback already received from members and requests that members start providing this feedback to the PSA via Regional Organiser Rebecca Reilly.

The PSA at our January meeting raised the issue of Team Leaders (TL) taking on the work of previous Housing Managers that have been removed from the district. We were advised that a lot of tasks that were being completed by the Housing Managers were identified to be at the Senior Customer Service Officer (SCSO) or TL level. The PSA has been asked to provide examples where this is happening. If you are completing tasks where the position was removed and its not at your level send these examples to Rebecca Reilly.

Phone Lines

The PSA raised the many concerns we have received regarding the phone lines as members have reported the current rostering arrangements are seen as inefficient, as some staff are unable to process certain enquiries and must take messages and refer matters on, further delaying responses. District response is that there is a recognised need for broader district-wide training, with a focus on how to respond to enquiries appropriately, rather than on end-to-end processing. Homes response is that Housing Operations Managers are tasked with supporting line managers to identify training needs across their teams and develop a plan for Director’s review. This will partly inform the training register, and any urgent training to support issues with resolving enquiries at the counter or by phone will be prioritised. Staff that rotate into new roles that they have not performed this recently, training will be provided prior to rotation. We encourage our members to raise your training needs with your manager ASAP. Feedback from members is that these skills take time to develop and staff rotating in and out of roles causes further delays and workload for staff.

Members are feeling pressured from management and feeling micromanaged while rostered on the phone que. The PSA has sent one example to the Director where this has happened and requests members to send other examples to the PSA and we will raise this out of session.

Access and Demand

The PSA raised concerns about the staffing levels in Access and Demand (A&D). While we highlighted the dire situation for Newcastle A & D, this is reflective right across the district. The PSA requested information on what is the expectation on the number of Temporary Accommodation Assessments that should be completed in a day and were advised that with a full team it should be 4. Delegates have provided information that members are receiving requests to “please explain” why they haven’t completed a higher number than this. If this has happened to you, send this information to the PSA.

Portfolios

PSA raised concerns about portfolios sizes exceeding 300 properties and adding vacant portfolios means our members are in fact managing much larger tenancies to manage. This was confirmed by the Directors comments that the line managers of each tenancy team can plan across the team to share the overall priorities ensuring there is equity for all staff. Adding the extra pressure of counter work and phone lines has placed extra stress on our members.

Workload

The PSA will continue to raise workload concerns with Homes NSW Executive however we need your help. While we understand that this creates extra workload, its important that you notify Homes of the impact of the high workload on your Psychosocial health via a WHS Safety Suite report. Email this notification to your personal email address, Delegate and /or Regional Organiser. This forms crucial evidence if you need to go on Workers Compensation and for the PSA to prove there is work overload in Homes NSW.

You can download the minutes of the meeting HERE

It is important to read the minutes as there are issues that members have asked the PSA to raise that won’t be detailed in this bulletin.

Northern District Member Meeting 

The PSA will hold a Northern District Member meeting on Wednesday 8th April 2026 at 12:30pm.

When: Wednesday 8 April 2026

Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm