CSNSW has recently written to the PSA seeking our consent to rescind the Crown Employee (Correctional Officers, Department of Communities and Justice) Award for Kempsey, Dillwynia, Wellington and John Morony (KDWJ Award) and to transition affected staff to the following Awards relevant to their classification:

• Crown Employees (Correctional Officers, Department of Communities and Justice – Corrective Services NSW) Award
• Crown Employees (Senior Assistant Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents, Department of Communities and Justice – Corrective Services NSW) Award
• Crown Employees (Custodial Executive Ranked Officers, Department of Communities and Justice – Corrective Services NSW) Award

This transition has been something PSA members have been calling for in order to provide consistent conditions across all Centres, and CSNSW have undertaken extensive work in order to allow for the rescission of the KDWJ Award.

NSW Government Wages Policy

As the rescission of the Award and transition to other Awards will involve an “employee related cost”, CSNSW is required to offset any increased cost through equivalent employee-related cost savings.

CSNSW has achieved the bulk of the required cost savings by deleting a number of vacant roles.  In addition to this, they are proposing the following two additional cost savings:

• The deletion of the hosiery allowance from the above Awards
• Ceasing the practice of current Senior Executive Advisory Group (SEAG) level employees accessing a day off, in addition to the Gazetted holiday, where a public holiday falls on a weekend. This practice was in place before the passing of the Public Holidays Act 2010, which allows for substituted public holidays when they fall on a weekend. For example, in 2022 New Years Day fell on a Saturday. As a result an extra public holiday was declared on Monday 3 January 2022, allowing the benefit of a public holiday for this group of workers.

The PSA are currently consulting with PSA Branch Executives regarding this proposal and will allow all members affected by this proposal to vote on whether they consent to the rescission of the KDWJ Award under the above conditions.  We are also seeking further information on specific dollar amounts of proposed costs and costs savings to ensure full transparency.

Effects of transition

For those on the KDWJ Award, the transition to a new Award would mean:

• Instead of Overtime being paid at a flat hourly rate, overtime is calculated as follows:
  • Monday to Saturday – 1.5x for the first two hours and then 2 x thereafter.
  • Sunday – 2x for the entirety of the overtime.
  • Public Holidays – 2.5x for the entirety of the overtime.
• More generous meal allowance entitlements
• Increased ranking structure
• The loss of the ability to cash out RDO’s in advance. While the KDWJ Award allows this, the other Awards do not.

The overall affect for all will be that there is one Award relevant to the employees classification, rather than different Awards and different conditions for different Centres.

A link to vote will be sent out over the next few days for all affected members to vote on the proposal to rescind the KDWJ Award under the above conditions.

If you have questions or concerns around the proposed transition, please contact your relevant PSA delegates and/or Industrial staff.