T4347
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TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION Industrial Relations Act 1984 Tasmanian TAFE Staff Society and Minister administering the Tasmanian State Service Act 1984
Industrial dispute - increase in contact (teaching) hours REASONS FOR DECISION In this matter the Tasmanian TAFE Staff Society (the Society) notified the Commission of a dispute concerning an increase in contact time for Heads of Schools. The increase came about because Associate Directors have absorbed administrative duties previously undertaken by Heads of Schools. Accordingly the Department of Employment, Industrial Relations and Training (the Department) informed Heads of Schools that their contact time will be increased by three hours a week. The Society objected to any variation being made primarily because of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Department and the Society which agreed teaching contact hours. Also the Society highlighted the conventions that apply when agreement has been reached and indeed when the subject matter is before the Commission for determination. I agree with those conventions and support them. The observation should be made however that the Memorandum of Understanding has not delivered the outcomes originally contemplated. That became obvious early in the Special Case proceedings which led the Commission to the view that to all intents and purposes the Memorandum of Understanding was no longer relevant to the respective positions of the parties. The departure from the Memorandum by the Department was one of the main reasons why the Special Case became bogged down in the way that it did. The fact remains however that organisationally TAFE has moved on and the creation of Associate Director positions is but one example of the structural changes that were made. Those positions, filled by members of the Society, have administrative responsibilities previously undertaken by Heads of Schools. Organisationally, therefore, it would not make sense not to productively use the time now available to Heads of Schools consequential to the filling of the Associate Director positions. In my opinion the Society recognise the logic of what is being proposed by the Department and its concerns go more to the way the Department appears to have gone about the process of seeking to change current arrangements for Heads of Schools. This observation by the Commission is also not new and one wonders what could be suggested by the Commission to improve the industrial relationship between the parties. Perhaps when the Special Case finding is handed down and the uncertainty of the outcome of that case is no longer there, the process of industrial reconciliation may have a better chance. In my view a constructive industrial relationship is crucial to achieving ongoing workplace reforms and for providing enhanced opportunities for employees. Those broad objectives are in my opinion integral, not only to TAFE but to industry, public and private, to maximising Tasmania's most important resource - its people. In all of the circumstances the only sensible approach appears to be to facilitate the increase in teaching hours from 9 to 12 hours a week for Heads of Schools following a reasonable transition period for the reallocation of administrative work from them to Associate Directors. It should be noted that the transitional period was not contemplated by me in my original suggestion to the parties on the implementation of the revised arrangements. Accordingly I recommend that the new teaching contact hours should commence as from 24 May 1993.
R.K. Gozzi Appearances: Date and Place of Hearing: |