Flexible Working Hours Agreement: PSA concerns

The PSA has recently met with icare Employee Relations to raise concerns following reports from members having difficulties accessing their entitlements to the icare Flexible Working Hours Agreement (FWHA).

Many members will remember the lengthy process that we went through negotiating a single icare FWHA which was signed off on 20 December 2019. This replaced a number of legacy agreements that had carried over from various government agencies at the creation of icare.

The access and use of FWHA is a long-standing practice across the NSW public sector and the PSA is committed to protecting and ensuring our members access and rights to work flexibly.

Some may remember government policies such as the 2013 Expenditure Review removed the ability for Public Sector employees to bank their flex time. To offset the loss of banking, the icare agreement allows for an extended settlement period of 12 weeks and for members to accrue up to 42 hours for carry-over into the next settlement period or to go into debit of up to 10 hours.

What is not working flexibly?

Being told that you can only work seven hours a day and that you must seek permission to work ‘overtime’ is not working flexibly.

This is known as ‘standard hours’ and should either be negotiated with the PSA on a business need for a particular section, for example, standard hours are very common in call centres where there is no work outside of calls coming in.

The only other time that standard hours are applied is when they are part of a performance management process where timekeeping has been identified as a problem. However, upon rectification of that issue, it would then be expected the employee would resume their ordinary access to the FWHA.

Working flexibly

A large number of Public Sector employees are covered by FWHAs, which are an enhancement of the Award provisions that allow for flexible working hours.

For example, many staff will choose to work a 7.5-8-hour day with a half-hour lunch break, which will mean that over a fortnight period they would accrue a regular flex day off over that period.

This is not working overtime as when you balance out the period you will simply have worked your 35 hours.

Of course, this is done in consultation with your local management. It may be that you can’t have every second Friday or Monday as flex leave but the PSA’s expectation is that you should be able to work in a way that benefits both the business needs and affords you the flexibility in dealing with workloads, work deadlines and the balance between work and family life.

Flexible Work Arrangements v FWHA

There is also a common misunderstanding about Flexible Work Arrangements and FWHA’s. Despite the similarity in naming they are two quite separate things.

An FWA is where for a certain time period (no more than 12 months) an employee can negotiate an arrangement to allow them to meet certain commitments (usually carers’ responsibilities) that require an ongoing fixed arrangement.

It is quite common that in negotiating a FWA an employee may have to forego access to the FWHA in order to be able make the FWA arrangement viable.

This is an individual arrangement negotiated between the employee and the employer for a set period at which time it must be reviewed and may or may not be extended depending upon the circumstances.

What next?

As the current agreement has expired, this is a good time to revisit the FWHA. Please be assured that the current agreement remains in place until such time as any new agreement is negotiated and supported by PSA members.

The PSA has asked icare Employee Relations to look at the training that is being provided across the business to its People Leaders so that there is a greater understanding and appreciation of allowing you to work flexibly.

In the meantime, feel free to share this bulletin with your colleagues and if you are having issues in being able to work flexibly you are encouraged to contact the PSA and let us know.