Homes NSW: Housing Portfolio Joint Consultative Committee meets for first time
NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) became Housing Portfolio (HP) when it moved to sit under Homes NSW in 2024. On 23 March 2026 Public Service Association (PSA) industrial staff attended the first quarterly Joint Consultative Committee meeting (JCC) with delegates and management from Homes NSW Housing Portfolio.
JCCs are an important platform to address workplace concerns and members are encouraged to reach out to É«ÀÇÉçÇødelegates and staff about any workplace issues they would like raised at the meetings. They are an opportunity for members to speak out and ask any questions they may have about workplace rights. Please note only collective issues are discussed at JCCs. Individual matters are managed privately.
Key discussions on 23 March included:
New fixed-term roles
Management spoke about the 67 new fixed-term roles that were announced in communications to staff earlier this year. Management said these roles are now available until June 2028 to help stabilise the workforce. The roles extend across the whole of the Housing Portfolio. Thirty-one roles will be for asset management, including 21 grade 5/6 roles. While there are some new roles, the main purpose of the new fixed-term roles is to reduce reliance on contingent labour. However, management said there will always be a place for contingent labour and it won’t be phased out altogether.
The rollout of the new roles is expected to take up to six months and management estimates that staff will begin in the new roles at the start of the next financial year.
Backfilling roles
Members have raised a number of concerns around the backfilling of roles when staff go on leave or act up in higher grades. Management said the process of backfilling roles should be the same as Housing Services.
Housing Services fills temporary vacancies of more than two weeks and uses Personal Development Plan (PDP), Expression of Interest (EOI) and talent pool lists to help fill the vacant roles. Members are encouraged to ask management about the process for filling temporary vacancies and to reach out to É«ÀÇÉçÇødelegates or staff if roles continue not to be backfilled.
Workload
Members have noted that while the higher grade roles tend to be backfilled, the 5/6 roles often aren’t. As a result, work backs up and it becomes impossible to catch up. Members should report incidents of high workload and share with the PSA.
SafeWork NSW has important information on its website about  and members are encouraged to speak up about it.
Workers’ comp and sick leave
The É«ÀÇÉçÇøraised concerns around getting people back to work after they’d been on workers’ comp. Past experience with the department has indicated that there can be substantial delays in some instances. The É«ÀÇÉçÇøhas also asked management to provide de-identified data on how many staff members went on sick leave or workers’ comp before the new contract versus after. Members have shared concerns around more staff on sick leave and workers’ comp since the new contract started.
Training
Concerns around training for new recruits and ongoing training to keep up with the requirements of the job were raised. Members have said they need updated training and guidelines around how to meet new standards for residential buildings such as smoke alarms, electrical plumbing, waterproofing, solar panels and batteries, and EV charges. Management confirmed they’d look into training around technical standards and compliance.
Work Health and Safety
The commenced on 22 August 2025, strengthening the requirements to manage psychosocial risks, which include issues such as role overload, work-related violence and emotional demands. The is clear: workplaces ‘must implement control measures to eliminate psychosocial risks so far as is reasonably practicable’.
Do you know who your workplace health and safety representative (HSR) is? HSRs play a vital role in the workplace to make sure work health and safety (WHS) issues are acted on and resolved. If your workplace does not have an HSR, you can ask management for one to be elected. More information can be found on the .
Management said they would share more information around WHS at the next JCC meeting.
The next JCC meeting will be in June. Members are encouraged to share any issues they have with workplace delegates, particularly around any of the points raised here.