Breakdown of PSA Membership

There were 44,202 ordinary members in the PSA as at 31/12/2002.

• Organisation & representation of members
• Employees covered by the PSA
• Jobs covered by the PSA
• Area of Employment
• Ordinary members by gender
• Membership trends
• Membership distribution

Organisation & representation of members

Employees covered by the PSA

The PSA covers employees of the New South Wales Government and NSW universities, and some employees in the private sector.

Very briefly the PSA covers:

• people who work for government departments
• people who work in budget funded agencies
• general staff in universities
• administrative & support staff and general assistants in schools
• general staff in technical education (TAFE) colleges
• non-police staff in the Police Service
• some classes of employees in statutory authorities such as electricity generators and distributors, Roads and Traffic Authority, TAB, and many others. The major exceptions are the port, water and public transport authorities.
• employees in some privatised bodies, eg irrigation companies.

If you are an employee wishing to join the PSA and you need to check your eligibility, see the Work allocation by department/agency and ring the person responsible for your department/agency. If not listed, look for nearest related body, eg if you work for a small board but your pay is handled by a department, look up the department.

The other major unions for NSW Government employees are the Teachers Federation, Nurses Association, Public Transport Union (trains and buses), Australian Services Union (public transport administration, water boards, ports, etc), Police Association and the Health and Research Employees Association.

Jobs Covered by the PSA

PSA/CPSU members occupy a broad range of positions in both the white collar and blue collar areas.

For example the range of jobs includes typists, school assistants, teacher's aides, laboratory assistants, food inspectors, channel attendants, prison officers, fisheries inspectors, general assistants in schools, housing welfare officers, industrial safety inspectors, clerk of works, youth worker in juvenile justice, border and tick inspection staff, sheriff's officers, special constables, transcription typists, clerical officers, supervisors, managers, court officers, park rangers, accountants, economists, probation officers, public trustees, emergency services officers, sports centre managers, land valuers, power station operators, technical officers in universities, administrative staff in universities, colleges and TAFE, librarians, parliamentary and electorate office staff, pastures protection officers, civil construction engineers, surveyors, disability services workers, agricultural extension and research officers, publication and publicity officers, town planners, architects, foresters, lawyers, museum and gallery curators, social workers, map makers and many other occupations.

More than half our members can be described as managerial, administrative and clerical.

Area of Employment

31 December 2002

Ordinary members by gender (31/12/2001)

Membership trends

	1986		49293
	1987		51759
	1988		54086
	1989		50084
	1990		47527
	1991		46196
	1992		41998
	1993		39944
	1994		39553
	1995		40826
	1996		40806
	1997		43466
	1998		42023
	1999		42994
	2000		42446
	2001		43025
	2002		44,202

Note: Figures before 1989 overstate the membership as unfinancial and "missing" members were retained in the figures for lengthy periods. Rigorous pruning became feasible with a new computer system.

Membership distribution (2003)

Regional Offices