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Community Corrections Joint Consultative Committee

  20 October 2022

The ɫ������met with the Assistant Commissioner (AC) Crawford and Community Correction at the September Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) meeting. The following matters were discussed:

Directors asking members to do custodial work

The ɫ������advised that Community Corrections have asked members to undertake custodial duties when the Department has been short-staffed. In particular, the ɫ������advised Community Corrections that it was concerned around the safety of members and reiterated that members cannot be directed to undertake custodial work. AC Crawford acknowledged the concerns around Workplace Heath and Safety and where there are specific tasks of concern, further training can be provided. The AC also reiterated that if members are feeling pressured, any work is voluntary, and they do not have to participate. The ɫ������will provide specific examples of locations to Community Corrections as individual members who raised the issue did not want to be identified.

Project update: Improving the safety of frontline Community Corrections staff conducting field visits

Community Corrections provided an update on the work for the project which commenced in July 2022. As part of this project, Community Corrections is exploring the viability of introducing safety strategies, including installing dashcams in vehicles used for field visits, introducing mandatory safety training, and procuring steel-capped boots.

In early August, Community Corrections held a consultation group with Managers from each District. Additional information will be collated over the coming months and consultation with the ɫ������is to occur. Community Corrections also advised the ɫ������that it is finalising a proposal to purchase a combination of vehicle- based mobile repeaters and satellite handsets. This matter is to be discussed again at the next JCC meeting.

ɫ������proposal Field Officers conversion to ongoing roles

The ɫ������wrote to Community Corrections advocating that field officers should be made on-going. Community Corrections responded on 27 July 2022 advising that the current arrangement whereby field officers are causal is suitable to the Community Corrections and they do not want to enter into any changes. Regardless of this response, the ɫ������believes that these roles have a consistent pattern of work which obligate the conversion to ongoing. The ɫ������will view our legal options and continue to advocate for conversion.

Domestic Violence Electronic Monitoring industrial issues, community safety and policy change

The ɫ������raised workload issues experienced by members in this unit. Community Corrections advised that data is being reviewed by the OPP team that will inform discussion regarding workload with the PSA.

Amendment to “Allocation of Case Manager Work” document

The ɫ������provided an instance of a Community Services Organiser AA who was acting as Case Manager being allocated CSO Organiser duties. The ɫ������stated that the restrictions that should apply when undertaking Case Management roles. The AC agreed to amend the document titled “Allocation of work to Case Managers within Community Corrections” to indicate that case managers who were not former CCOs are not to be allocated Court Duty Officer or CSO Organiser responsibilities.

 Development opportunities

The ɫ������raised concerns over fair and equitable opportunities for members. The ɫ������cited an example where family members are given preferential treatment and the misuse of talent pools. The AC confirmed this is not acceptable. No irregularities in recruitment should occur and if they do, they should be reported as alleged misconduct. The AC has since issued advice to managers to address these concerns and restate expectations, the appropriate processes, and conflicts of interest.

Manager roles

Concerns were raised around the expectations of the Administration Supervisors’ duties.

The Assistant Commissioner accepted these roles are still relatively new and there are issues to work through. This was the intention of the Admin Supervisors Working Group led by Director West. Since Director West was on unanticipated leave, the work has been temporarily halted. Community Corrections will invite Director West to attend the next JCC meeting to provide an update. If Admin Supervisors are being asked to perform duties outside of their role description, this needs to be addressed.

Admin Supervisors should be encouraged to speak with their managers/directors if they are asked to perform work outside of the role descriptions / administrative functions so it can be addressed.

Kosazarov v State

This recent High Court ruling has implications for members regarding duties owed by the employer to employees in relation to trauma. Community Corrections confirmed this case had been reviewed by Community Corrections and they will provide further information to the PSA. The ɫ������noted that the issue had arisen from site visits, particularly from parole units with members seeking professional counselling and debriefing. The ɫ������will provide information about issues in one site out of session.

JSAP payroll system

The ɫ������raised concerns the difficulties members were having with the JSAP payroll system. Community Corrections advised that the ɫ������and Community Corrections can facilitate a meeting with payroll to look at specific issues. The Assistant Commissioner recognised the issues and highlighted this was a problem CSNSW wide with the implementation of the new system. The ɫ������will provide examples to Community Corrections for an out of session meeting.

Cultural issues in Community Corrections

ɫ������raised ongoing concerns of members regarding culture and safe workplaces at Community Corrections locations. The Assistant Commissioner confirmed there has been a lot of work to improve culture and safety in workplaces. However, the Assistant Commissioner also accepted there are areas where further work is needed. The Assistant Commissioner stated that she welcomes working with the ɫ������where required.

ɫ������Industrial Staff

Chris Auld�����������Ծ������

Monika Wunderlin Industrial Officer

For assistance with any individual matter, please contact the Member Support Centre in the first instance on 1800 772 679.