On 19th January 2009 the PSA received the response from Public Sector Workforce Relations in relation to the Review of Work Level Definitions for the Professional Classification Structure.

All interested parties were invited to make submissions and all government agencies were also consulted.

A number of agreed matters were identified by PSWR and have been incorporated into the Work Level Definitions. This will be enabled by an Administrative action and formalised in any subsequent Enterprise Agreement. These agreed matters were common matters arising from the submissions from both unions and employers.

An example of the changes are the amendments to definitions to include:

"Significant" means professional work which is noteworthy, or of considerable amount, effect or importance.

“Specialising" refers to work which focuses on one operationally narrow aspect within a professional discipline using either acquired experience or a combination of acquired experience and discipline based study.

Other amendments change the words "and" to "or", "crucial" to "significant" .

These changes clarify the intention of the work level definitions and it is hoped will make the assessment of professional roles less confusing.

However, there remain a large number of matters, some to be addressed during the coming round of Enterprise and some that PSWR believe are beyond the scope of the Review.

The correspondence from PSWR has been placed on the PSA website and can be access by here.

If you have any questions please contact Gayle Peak, Assistant Chief Industrial Officer at gp@cpsu.asn.au

PSA WORKING FOR PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS