Roads and Maritime Services Registry transition to Service NSW – February 2017 (PDF version)

The PSA would like to see members seek to transition (through the agreed NSW IRC processes) to Service NSW centres. However, the PSA is mindful that there are staff who will not wish to transition and therefore be subject to an offer of Voluntary Redundancy.

The PSA met with RMS representatives on 15 December with regard to the current workforce profiling of the remaining regional registries.

You can read the PSA correspondence HERE.

The PSA requested the meeting to discuss identified issues with the current process of Voluntary Redundancies (provided to staff who do not transition to Service NSW) paid at the contract of employment rate.

The primary concern for the PSA is that, in order to satisfy business need of regional communities, there are number of part-time staff in RMS Registries that have and are working more than their contract of employment hours on a systematic basis. These staff would be negatively affected in terms of a VR payment if their contract of employment terms were used as the basis of calculation of the ‘incentive component.’

It hardly seems fair that part-time RMS members should be negatively affected when they are working in this way because of the Government decision to transition RMS registries to Service NSW centres. Without commitment from Service NSW to provide a presence in these regional areas, this has meant that many of these regional registries have effectively been left in limbo for the past three years.

There are a number of options available to rectify the inherit disadvantage. The RMS can pay the VR on the basis of the hours worked by the staff member before the acceptance of the VR i.e. the hours staff worked at upon termination. The RMS could average out the number of additional hours worked by part-time staff over a period of time. Alternatively, the RMS can address the deficiency by varying the contract of employment for part-time staff with the acceptance of those staff members to better reflect the pattern of hours worked.

The RMS provided correspondence to the PSA on 23 December where it was stated that the RMS would not entertain any proposal. You can read the RMS correspondence HERE.

With no certainty that Service NSW will keep a regional presence to replace the RMS registries; no commitment from the RMS to rectify the disadvantage imposed by the interpretation of PSIR and; no timeframes for transition it hardly seems that RMS Registry staff have cause for cheer this year.

The PSA cannot accept the RMS position not to recognise the entitlements of part-time staff who are consistently working over and above their contract of employment hours. The PSA has now filed a dispute notification with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. The PSA will provide updates to members when this matter is heard by the IRC.