The PSA held a workplace meeting at the Asset Management Unit (AMU) in Blacktown on Tuesday, 7 February 2023. We heard that staff have some concerns about the department engaging in a new Facility Maintenance contract from July 2023, and the need for clearer communication about what this means for the current Asset Service Officers (ASOs) and Senior Asset Service Officers in the Schools Infrastructure NSW (SINSW) Directorate.

PSA Workplace Meeting

In addition to general concerns about the potential for increased workload, members raised specific questions about the following:

• Will ASOs be expected to take on extra duties outside the current role description?
• Will an ASO now be required to hold a trade qualification to do their job?
• Will ASOs be required to work on-call outside of their regular contract working/flex hours or will this out of hours work remain under the FM contract?
• Who will be responsible for the compliance matters currently handled by Senior ASOs, such as trees and bushfire protection measures?
• Under the new FM contract, who will be responsible for and manage, that sub-contractors work completed in schools, is up to the standard required?
• Who is responsible for worker safety?
• Who will issues be escalated to in relation to the FM contract?

Meeting with AMU Executive Director

The PSA met with the SINSW – Asset Management Unit’s Executive Director, Glen Downie on 8 February 2023. We put your questions and concerns to him and advised an immediate need for clearer communication to impacted staff in the AMU.  We advocated for the department to conduct an information session with opportunity for Q&A, to ensure that the roles and responsibilities going forward are clear, and to address any staff concerns. The Executive Director has agreed to do this.

The PSA was also assured in the meeting of the following:

• The Asset Services Officer (ASO) role description will not change.
• ASOs will carry out onsite checks using a checklist tool provided by the department but are not required to have a trade qualification to do their job.
• An additional 50 roles will improve ASO workloads, due to improving the ratio of ASO responsibility from 15 schools to 10 schools. The current work undertaken by the FM provider will not transfer to ASOs.
• The parameters of the 8 regional areas (4 of which are metro) will slightly change to even-out the number of schools in each, to approx. 300 per region [noting this may mean a change in reporting line for some staff but no one will be required to change their work location]
• Under the FM contract arrangements – each school will have the ability to use local sub-contractors to complete required work in a timely manner.
• The Senior ASOs will not be required to do the work of an arborist for example, to maintain trees under the Bushfire protection plan but would continue to have visibility of what work is required and is being done in the schools in their coverage.
• SINSW will be responsible for managing the FM contract in-house and any matters of concern including with standard of work completed and/or safety concerns should be escalated within SINSW/AMU – over which the Executive Director has ultimate responsibility.

We can assure our members that the PSA will continue to engage with SINSW over this and other matters of mutual concern and interest.  We plan to establish further consultative meetings with the Executive Director, to ensure that we are across relevant information and that issues arising are attended to promptly.

If you are a PSA member and would like to arrange a workplace visit, you can contact PSA organizer, Peta Noke on email: and you have any questions of concerns please contact PSA Member Support Centre on 1300 772 679.       

If you are not a member of the PSA we encourage you to JOIN