Earlier today, Transport for NSW (TfNSW) hosted a livestream to discuss proposed changes to the Transport Flexible Work Arrangements Procedure, and proposed Way We Work Guide.

Key points in the proposed policy

We encourage all members to read and review the proposed policy in full. You should receive a link to the portal with these documents from TfNSW.  From the initial livestream, the proposed policy contains the following:

• A defined Standard Hybrid Agreement – The Standard Hybrid Agreement sets a baseline for what is principally in the office (50%). This includes:
  • A minimum of five days per month from your approved Team Hub
  • A further five days per month from an approved Transport Workplace.
  • An approved Transport workplace is an office, depot, project site, operational site, station or work-related location. It includes working from your Team Hub or any other Transport Workplace where you are assigned to work. Conducting work-related activities from other locations such as attending court, parliament, or visiting external stakeholders is also considered working from an approved workplace.
  • The remaining 10 days working remotely per month
  • The way in which the above arrangements are scheduled do not need to be continuous
  • This standard hybrid agreement requires agreement with manager, and approved by Director
  • Standard Hybrid Agreement is in writing, and can be made for a 12-month period
• An Individual Hybrid Agreement – An individual agreement can be requested for employees with exceptional circumstances, to go above the Standard Hybrid Agreement. Some reasons may include:
  • Caring responsibilities, disability, injury/chronic illness, or other relevant reason
  • Living more than 90 minutes commute (each way) from the nearest approved Transport Workplace
  • Living or working regionally, but still attached to a Team Hub in a Metropolitan LGA, or vice versa.
  • This Individual Hybrid Agreement requires agreement with manager, and approval by Role 60 Delegation (Executive Director, People and Culture)
  • Individual Hybrid Agreement is in writing, and can be made for 12-month period

Consultation on proposed policy open for three weeks

While the proposed changes have been discussed today, there is a three-week period until 19 March 2025 for staff to provide feedback and ask questions. TfSNW is required to consider that feedback, and detail how they have taken that feedback into consideration before releasing any finalised policy.  At the moment, implementation is listed as between May-September 2025.

The PSA has already raised the need for further livestreams from TfNSW during the consultation period, regardless of this one being recorded.

Send your feedback

The PSA will be compiling all our members’ feedback and submitting the results to TfNSW. We have developed the following short survey to aid with compiling this feedback from across the state. The survey will require your name and email address for validation purposes to ensure that we hear from PSA members. You can take the survey HERE.

Please note You may have already submitted responses to our previous Working From Home survey. This survey received more than 1000 responses.  These responses have already been compiled and contain extremely valuable information on the effect of removing flexible work practices. The new survey  linked above is aimed at specific feedback on the current proposed policy and procedures.

PSA member meetings

We are currently scheduling PSA member meetings to discuss the proposed changes with members. There will be a number of meetings, held via Teams, at different times to allow for as many members as possible to participate. These meetings details will be distributed in a further bulletin.

Negotiating hybrid agreements

While the changes are “proposed”, it is clear that at the moment requests to work flexibly will involve yearly written agreements that require discussion, negotiation and agreement with managers and above.

There has never been a more important time to join the PSA. If you are not yet a member, you can join at www.psa.asn.au