SHARED SERVICES UPDATE

PSA General Secretary Jan McMahon and Industrial Officers Simon Johnson and Josie Barbaro met with the Deputy Under Treasurer, Manager and staff of Workforce Relations, Shared Services Reform Office, on Monday 12th November 2007. The following is a summary of issues discussed;

(a) REDEPLOYMENT

Following the commitment given to arrange a meeting with the PSA to discuss consultation over redeployment principles last week, the PSA was advised it would be receiving correspondence shortly with an invitation to attend a meeting with Department of Treasury and Finance, and Department of Premier and Cabinet who will have responsibility for managing redeployees. The PSA will not support any changes to redeployment practices which disadvantage members.

Given the objective of the Shared Services proposal to make savings, it is inevitable there will be job losses. Although initial transition is 'as is', the second stage of the transition will be to develop a new service and structure and this will result in redeployees. Members need to know now what the redeployment policy will be before making any decision to transition.

(b) DRAFT HUMAN RESOURCES PRINCIPLES/CONSULTATION ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

The PSA has now submitted a response to the above draft documents which will be the subject of further consultation. If you would like further details on these, please contact the PSA using the contact details at the end of the brief.

A second document is being prepared to deal with issues arising for regional employees, however this is yet to be provided to the PSA.

(c) OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS/ISSUES

In addition to issues which have been raised by the PSA on behalf of members such as Salary Sacrifice arrangements and relocation expenses, the PSA has submitted a list of questions which can be viewed on the PSA website, along with the response provided. The PSA will continue to update this information as further details become available.

(d) CLASSIFICATION

The PSA has strong concerns over outstanding reclassification applications. Shared Services SA will be requesting agencies to finalise these prior to staff transitioning during the discovery phase. The PSA requested this be done sooner given many applications are already taking unreasonable amounts of time, and to allow time for employees to utilise appeal processes if required.

Another issue highlighted by the PSA is the potential to have employees from different agencies being paid different pay levels for doing the same work. Obviously this situation is not acceptable. It was made clear by Treasury that the transition was not to be used as an 'opportunity for promotion', however the PSA believes this is an issue of pay parity, and the discrepancies between agencies and how staff are paid will become apparent during this process. Members are strongly encouraged to submit reclassification applications if they believe they are not being correctly paid.

(e) REGIONAL SA

The PSA has had the opportunity to attend some of the regional briefings conducted by Shared Services SA, and has spoken to many members working in regional areas. The overwhelming feedback is that members are not prepared to relocate to the CBD. For many families, it is simply not feasible to relocate due to financial and family obligations. The PSA has written to Minister Wright requesting the Government reconsider its decision in relation to regional employees given the impact and flow on in the community of job losses. The letter can be viewed here on the PSA website.

Given the number of unresolved issues, the PSA believes members should demand this information prior to any consideration about transitioning to Shared Services SA.

PSA/CPSU WORKING FOR MEMBERS

13 November 2007