Following years of campaigning by the PSA, Service NSW has formally acknowledged that it owes staff for unpaid hours working overtime, a move that will result in extra money in members’ pockets.

The agency admitted it has contravened the Service NSW (Salaries and Conditions) Employees Award and confirmed that from 13 February 2026 all staff will be paid for all time worked.

The PSA had for years been demanding Service NSW rescind its ‘rounding rules’ whereby staff in service centres and the middle office who worked past the end of their rostered shift were not being paid overtime if time was less than 15 minutes.

Staff in contact centres who worked fewer than eight minutes extra were also not being paid for that time.

Under the award, Service NSW staff must be paid for “all time worked”.

The PSA has been consulting with Minister Jihad Dib to resolve the dispute.

“It was the previous Liberal Government that refused to comply with the Award,” said PSA Senior Organiser Anne Kennelly. “The high-ranking Service NSW officials who have been refusing to comply with the Award up until 13 February would have been Liberal appointees.”

New instructions outlining how overtime is to be approved, recorded and paid have now been issued by Service NSW.

Service NSW has confirmed there will be back pay for staff who are owed unpaid overtime. Delegates believe this could run into the thousands for some members.

“A member said to me, ‘I’ve had this discussion and fight with a manager over this: it is about time he was told he was wrong’,” said PSA Delegate Rae Steel.

Ms Kennelly said such disputes between staff and managers “would contribute to the high levels of workplace bullying our members have reported to us”.

Negotiations between the PSA and Service NSW regarding the process and timing of back payments are ongoing.

“This shows the power of union membership,” said PSA General Secretary Stewart Little. “Our work on behalf of members will see them receive wages they should rightfully have received if their employer had followed the Award.

“Without a union, however, this win would not have been possible.”