The PSA Transport for NSW members’ meeting took place on Monday 21 August.

Thank you to all who attended, the next meeting will be on Monday 9 October at 12:30, you can register HERE.

Members were addressed by Industrial Manager, Thane Pearce; Secretary of the Departmental Committee (DC), Gary Sladden; Chair of the DC, Dane Richards and Organiser, Izzy Maish. The main topics of discussion were your 4.5% pay rise (backdated to July 1, due in your bank account soon), further updates from the Award Negotiations and the role of the delegate. Gary talked about the Yammer Page he has created, make sure to join HERE. 

Thank you for your questions. We have collated them and have done our best to get to them all. If your question has been missed, or you would like more information, please contact Organiser Izzy Maish at ">. You can also ask your question at the next members’ meeting.

 

Q&A

Any news on the TSSM pay freeze?

TfNSW has reversed their decision to enact a unilateral pay freeze after the PSA questioned its legality. TfNSW has proposed the following arrangement:

• 63% (which is 1358) of the employees would get an increase
• 106 employees would get an increase >2.5%
• 371 employees would receive an increase less than 2.5% due to them being positioned near or at max
• 895 employees would receive a 2.5% increase
• 784 employees would receive no increase

However, some unions have disputed the fairness of this, particularly for the employees not receiving a pay rise. We have yet to hear back from TfNSW. We will send out a bulletin once we have more information.

Can you confirm 4% pay rise and 0.5% super increase?

Yes, this will be backdated to July 1 2023, and is currently in the process of being approved.

As many of you know this is the biggest increase in over a decade, after the 12-year wages cap implemented by the previous state government. The wages cap will be formally abolished on 1 September this year.

In addition to the pay increase and the end of the wage cap, an Industrial Relations Taskforce has been established to review the process of determining Public Sector salaries and consider changes to the industrial relations system which will stand us in good stead for future negotiations.

It is thanks to the members of the PSA that the wages cap will be lifted.

I note the Commonwealth public service has agreed to no caps on WFH days, a bias towards approving WFH requests and an onus on the employer to show why a request can’t be met if it not approved. Is Transport looking to negotiate something similar in our award?

At present, there are no provisions in the Awards about WFH, this is all dictated by the Flexible Work Policy and Procedure. However, I believe that the decision of the Commonwealth is a good precedent to raise in negotiations next year.

If you have been unilaterally refused flexibility to WFH, especially if you are a carer, please let Izzy know at

One of this issues that came out of the forfeited flex matter last time was that there was then pressure put on staff to not work extra hours, but the workload didn’t change.

This seems very common, if this is happening, please contact Izzy at and I will raise it at the Flex Working Group.

Is there any push for TfNSW to have a Role description with built in capability framework finalised for every role?

There are still members who do not have RDs, or, who have RDs that do not reflect their duties. Please contact Izzy at if you are affected.

Please also advise on the best way we can approach/contact PSA for any support.

For any individual issues please contact the Member Support Centre on 1300 772 679. If you would like to request a site visit, are interested in becoming a delegate, or believe that the union has not been consulted on a change, please contact Izzy directly at

 

PSA Delegates

Dane Richards Corporate Services, Burwood

Adam Carroll: Regional and Outer Metro, Grafton

Janet Miller: People and Culture, Macquarie Park

Gary Sladden: Customer Strategy and Technology, Yennora

Sharon Smith: Corporate Services, Newcastle West

Lee-Anne Stanford: Regional and Outer Metro, Wollongong

Hayley Dellaca: Regional and Outer Metro, Newcastle

Dani Gordon: Infrastructure and Place, Newcastle