Government makes offer to create a separate Child Protection Award

As a result of the sustained PSA Child Protection in Crisis Campaign, the State Government has made an offer to establish a separate Child Protection Award.

The creation of a separate Child Protection Award is essential to achieving reclassification and associated remuneration increases.

The Government’s proposed changes to your wages and conditions come after years of campaigning by your union, the PSA, culminating in the Child Protection in Crisis campaign this year, which received considerable media attention statewide.

The offers below are just the next steps in our long-running campaign to improve a child protection system that is in severe crisis.

For Child Protection workers

The salaries offer is as follows:

• 4 per cent 2024-2025 increase in salaries plus 0.5 per cent superannuation (backdated to first full pay period after 1 July 2024)
• Throughout 2024-25 the parties agree to establishing a separate Child Protection Award and updated role descriptions for all employees engaged in Child Protection and specific conditions to employees who work in child protection such as Flexible Working Hours and Overtime, and safe working allocation guidelines/principles
• Any dispute as to the terms of this Award will be resolved through the IRC.
• The Department will immediately recruit at Grade 4 instead of Grade 3 for the remainder of 2024-25 (due to expire on 1 July 2025) and all existing Grade 3 employees will be moved to Grade 4.

For all other members employed by DCJ

If the offer is accepted these PSA members will receive a compounded increase of 11.4 per cent over the three years.

This figure includes the two Federal Government-mandated 0.5 per cent increases to superannuation.

The salaries offer is as follows:

• 4 per cent 2024-2025 increase in salaries plus 0.5 per cent superannuation
• 3 per cent 2025-2026 increase in salaries plus 0.5 per cent superannuation
• 3 per cent 2026-2027 increase in salaries

This offer will be backdated to the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2024.

The offer includes a safeguard mechanism to protect wage-earners if the Sydney Consumer Price Index exceeds 3.5 per cent (March quarter) in the second or third year of the deal. If this is the case, there will be negotiations for a one-off, non-cumulative, cost-of-living allowance (COLA).

If the Sydney Consumer Price Index exceeds 4 per cent (March quarter) in the second or third year exceeds members will receive a $1,000 taxable, one-off, non-cumulative cost-of-living adjustment payment, plus superannuation.

Managing Excess Employees

As part of the Government’s pay offer, the PSA will negotiate changes to the Managing Excess Employees (MEE) policy to bring it into line with the new Workforce Mobility Placement (WMP) policy implemented late last year.

The WMP policy has seen great improvements in the retention of public servants affected by workplace change. A review of the MEE is a positive step in restoring retention as the primary goal of managing excess employees.

The State Government has also identified several obsolete allowances it wishes to remove from the Crown Employees (Public Sector Conditions of Employment) Award. The PSA has agreed to this on the basis that anyone still currently receiving one of these allowances will continue to do so.

Have your say

The PSA is a member-based organisation, and therefore acceptance of this offer is up to you and your colleagues in the union. Please vote at the link below.

Click HERE to vote.

Voting closes at 4:00pm Monday 14 October 2024.

Voting is restricted to PSA members.

What happens next?

If PSA members vote YES to the offer, all Public Sector workers covered by the PSA Awards in our claim will receive the increases offered, including back pay to the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2024.

The PSA would immediately begin negotiation on a separate Child Protection Award, to contain a new classification structure for Child Protection Workers.

If PSA members vote NO to the offer, the PSA will continue to press for our general claim for a 5.2 per cent pay increase, plus superannuation, for 2024-25 in the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC). The IRC has had its powers to act as an independent umpire and set wages and conditions returned after a long campaign by your union, the PSA.

The rejection of the offer by Child Protection Workers would mean that a separate Child Protection Award would not be negotiated, and you would remain on the current Clerk Grading classification, receiving the same pay increases as the rest of the Public Sector.

On the current timetable set by its Vice President David Chin, the IRC will consider the question of an interim increase for PSA Awards on 6 November 2024. The dates for the arbitration of the full case are set for late November and early December.

Any decision on a pay increase will be backdated to the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2024. However, a final decision by the IRC may not be made until early 2025.

Click HERE for a video message on the pay offer from PSA General Secretary Stewart Little.

For a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding, which is subject to endorsement, click HERE.