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Ministry of Health – Still too many contractors on the books

  28 June 2018

Ministry of Health – Still too many contractors on the books – June 2018 (PDF version)

Report back from Consultative Committees

1. Report back on Joint Consultative Committee (JCC)
2. Information about the move to St Leonards – report back on Sub-JCC

Both meetings were held on 13 June 2018.

Joint Consultative Committee – Report Back

Issues discussed included:

1. Recruitment

The Ministry provided the following recruitment report for April/May 2018:

22 ongoing appointments;

20 temporary employment extensions;

6 secondment extensions;

5 expressions of interest;

28 roles externally advertised; and

8 roles filled through activation of talent pool.

2. Contractors

There are currently 111 contractors engaged by the Ministry as follows:

Finance – 20

People, Culture and Governance – 24

Population and Public Health – 33

Strategy and Resources – 9

System Purchasing and Performance – 23

Units reporting to the Secretary – 1

The Ministry continues to refuse to provide information about contractors by individual branch. The É«ÀÇÉçÇøasked whether the 111 figure includes those branches where employees are part of Health System Support Division (such as the Activity Based Management and Health Protection NSW) under the Health Administration Corporation or all branches in the Ministry.

The Ministry’s representatives were unable to answer this very reasonable question and said they would come back to us with a response.

The É«ÀÇÉçÇøcontinues to be concerned about the number of contractors at 73 Miller Street and the Ministry’s lack of transparency in our consultative forum. Our question should have been an easy one with which to provide an accurate answer. We will continue to pursue this matter until we get some clear answers. Above all, we will continue to argue that the Ministry should be appointing public servants to ongoing roles rather than relying on labour hire.

3. Work, Health and Safety Report

It was positive to note that there had been no new incident reports. The É«ÀÇÉçÇøwants to ensure that bullying and harassment incidents are accurately reported. The Ministry will give further thought to this and provide advice at the next meeting.

4. Position Descriptions/Role Descriptions

It has been brought to the PSA’s attention that some ongoing staff members in the Ministry may still have position descriptions and not role descriptions as required by the Government Sector Employment Act 2013.

Ministry representatives believe all position descriptions have been converted to role descriptions but will investigate further in light of the information we provided.

The next meeting of the JCC will be on Wednesday, 15 August 2018. If members have any agenda items can they please contact their delegates, industrial officer or senior organiser at least 10 days prior to the meeting.

Sub-Joint Consultative Committee – Report Back

The sub-JCC has been specifically set up to discuss issues relating to the move to St Leonards. The issues raised at the É«ÀÇÉçÇømember’s meeting directly influence what the É«ÀÇÉçÇøraises at this meeting and we will continue to push for clearer information about the move.

Report back from HR:

1. Boarding/fencing has begun at the St Leonards site but demolition was yet to begin.
2. The DA approvals are likely to be given in July.
3. The functional design workshops will be concluding in June, the É«ÀÇÉçÇørequested that we be included in at least one of these workshops and that further consultation be entered into around this.
4. New ways to work:
   1. Laptops will be rolled out – completed in September.
   2. All desks will be provided with a docking station and normal or ergonomic keyboard.
   3. Training and additional support staff will be available throughout the change.
5. The Blacktown Hospital site has been inspected by Ministry representatives, this site is an example an agile workplace.
6. The email migration to the new system will be completed by 27 July. It was confirmed that emails will be archived after three or four months. The Ministry advised that this is just how the emails are stored and should not have any impact on staff access to emails older than four months.

Ministry put on notice about É«ÀÇÉçÇømember issues

The issues raised at the members meeting held earlier on the same day were put to the Ministry and the É«ÀÇÉçÇøwas advised that further discussion would be forthcoming once the new HR representative, recently recruited, with carriage of this matter begins at the Ministry, reportedly on 18 June 2018.

The É«ÀÇÉçÇøwill be seeking a meeting with the new officer as soon as possible and will certainly not be waiting until the next sub-JCC meeting on 15 August to discuss members’ concerns.

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Julie Westacott ‑ É«ÀÇÉçÇøDelegate

John Bertacco ‑ É«ÀÇÉçÇøDelegate

Peter Gilfedder ‑ É«ÀÇÉçÇøDelegate

Carmel McKeough ‑ Industrial Officer

Siobhan Callinan ‑ Senior Organiser