The five-week consultation period for the ICT draft Change Management Plan (CMP) has concluded with the CPSU NSW consulting with more than 200 affected members within the ICT space.
The CPSU NSW would like to thank members of the union working party for their great work and time spent on behalf of their fellow members. Thank you to Dave Prowse, Julie Keena, Paul Dennis, Marc Fearby and Paula Paterek from the ICT space and your DC delegates Jin Cho, Joanna Carroll and Leanne Riley.
Through the consultation, your union was able to argue for certain aspects of the TAFENSW draft CMP to be changed, such as the removal of the attempt on the part of TAFE to make certain ICT staff work Saturdays, among other changes.
However, there remain a few outstanding issues TAFENSW needs to address and resolve to the satisfaction of the union.
Accordingly we have notified TAFENSW that we are formally disputing these outstanding matters.
In essence, this means TAFE is now obliged, under Clause 8 of the Enterprise Agreement, to arrange a meeting or a series of meetings with union representatives, including ICT subject specialists from the working group, to resolve the disputed matters.
It also means that until such time as the disputed matters are settled, normal work shall continue and no further action on the CMP can be taken.
Disputed matters
Merit selection The union does not accept that TAFE is unwilling to recognise the principle of merit selection and include it as a criterion for being an ‘eligible employee’ at steps 1 and 2 of the placement process.
Mapping Members’ concerns persist with mismatching of positions, including the non-matching of positions due to out-of-date positions descriptions that do not reflect work currently being performed. There is no transparency in the process of review, with TAFE declining addendums with zero justification. The CPSU NSW seeks transparency on all reviews that have occurred.
Location Staff insist that a location must be against each position so they are able to know where they will be reasonably expected to work at most times. This would avoid staff being pressured to travel unreasonable distances from their homes. It would also avoid staff being unreasonably pressured to negotiate a location with management at the interview stage.
Reduction of field support staff/workload The CPSU NSW needs to ensure Library or Admin staff are not pressured or pushed to undertake duties that fall outside their statement of duties/PD as a result the anticipated reductions in field support staff.
Where to from here?
We will update members as new information comes to hand.
