SASS welcome back to school bulletin
SASS welcome back to school bulletin – October 2016 (PDF version)
Welcome back to school
The PSA welcomes our members back to school. We hope that you had an enjoyable break.
A lot has happened in the industrial space for schools over the holidays and the PSA would like to update members on the most recent developments.
Performance development ban continues to be in effect
As previously advised, a ban on PSA members participating in performance development has been in place since July 2016.
The PSA and the Department of Education have continued to exchange correspondence on performance development. However, the Department is refusing to commit to resolving the concerns of the union and its members. Instead, the Department has requested the ban be lifted without offering anything in return. As this does not meet the concerns and wishes of our members, the PSA directs that members continue to observe the performance development ban.
Concerns about performance development for SASS
- The PSA would like to make it clear to members our concerns around performance development and the importance of consultation prior to implementation.
- Lack of proper union consultation – the Department is ignoring valuable PSA and member feedback
- SASS roles are not capability based – the award requires the Department to develop a capability based framework yet they have refused to do so
- Workloads – the Department has not provided evidence of how they will mitigate the workload impact of performance development on SAS staff
- Pay (this relates to workload) – the Department is adding an additional responsibility to SAS Staff with no pay adjustment
- Who will be doing the PDPs – the Department has not clarified who will be facilitating the PDPs
- Performance management – the PSA is concerned that the Department refuses to clarify that performance development is not clearly linked to performance management and the EPAC process
- Lack of checks and balances – the Department has not shown evidence of how they will safeguard performance development from abuse of power and stop it from being used as a tool to “manage out” staff who are not liked. The roll out of Local Schools Local Decisions heightens the PSA’s concerns.
In light of the above issues remaining unresolved the PSA directs members to continue to observe the ban. Collective strength is key to protecting our workplace rights.
PSA activates dispute resolution procedure on behalf of SLSOs
The PSA activated the dispute resolution procedure in the award on behalf of our School Learning Support Officers (SLSOs) on
28 September 2016.
The Department’s position is that it will provide “as much notice as practicable” to long-term SLSOs whose hours are cut or if their employment is discontinued. The PSA opposes this position because this does not provide our members who are in precarious employment with any certainty in their notice period. The PSA has requested at least four weeks’ notice in writing be provided by the Department.
This has been a long-standing Schools JCC agenda item and the parties are not reaching agreement. The PSA and the Department will go through the dispute resolution procedure and have a separate meeting on this matter. If agreement is not reached at this meeting the PSA will consider lodging this matter with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission for resolution.
The PSA would be interested to hear from members who are affected by this issue or know of a colleague who has been. Please feel free to share your story by emailing us on .
The campaign for Sport and Recreation centres continues
It is vital that the campaign against privatisation of any part of Sport and Recreation centres continue in the months leading up to the anticipated cabinet decision in December. With the State Government increasingly unpopular, now is the perfect time to expose Baird’s Secret Sell Off and use the leverage to fight for Sport and Recreation centres to stay in public hands.
Petition
Completed petitions are continuing to flood in, however we need a lot more if we are to force a debate in Parliament. The PSA urges members to gain as many signatures as possible, and return the originals to the PSA via post, as no photocopied, faxed or emailed petition will be accepted by Parliament. You can download a copy of the petition HERE.
Further information
If you are interested in reading the correspondence to get more detail on the issues mentioned above please click on the links below:
Performance development correspondence
- PSA Letter to Department 12 September 2016 – Read HERE.
- Department Reply 20 September 2016 – Read HERE.
- PSA Letter to Department 30 September 2016 – Read HERE.
- Department Reply 6 October 2016 – Read HERE.
