On Wednesday 8 April 2009 members in the Office Of The Public Advocate (OPA) commenced industrial action regarding their high workloads. This decision was not taken lightly and was after lengthy discussion with the Attorney Generals Department (AGD) over many years.

The following strategies were implemented from 8 April 2009:

Members resolve to not accept phone calls out of hours especially on weekends.

Guardians in the long-term team will not accept any cases beyond a cap of 36 per full time employee.

The Enquiry Officer will only accept a total of 20 enquiry call contacts per day.

Short term team members will not accept any cases beyond a total case-load of 25.

The duty worker will not respond to calls about cases on hold.

Administrative staff will not respond to enquirers. This will mean that some cases will not be responded to within the current 24 hour time frame.

In February 2006 members had to resort to similar industrial action because of high workloads. This industrial action resulted the AGD providing some extra staff.

In March 2006 AGD contracted Locher Human Resources to conduct a review of the OPA. This review has never been discussed with the PSA despite many requests.

The PSA's information regarding this report is that it recommended an increase of up to 7 positions across the OPA. The PSA can not substantiate this as we have not officially seen the report.

The PSA is committed to ensuring all members have a reasonable workload. Industrial action will continue until the appropriate level of staff is provided.

Please contact PSA Industrial Officer Keith Knipe on 8205 3297 or kgk@cpsu.asn.au to organise meeting details.