T6577
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TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION Industrial Relations Act 1984 Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, FISH, AQUACULTURE AND MARINE PRODUCTS AWARD
Award variation - (1) to vary Holidays, Saturday, Sunday and Overtime Payments clause to remove identified ambiguities, and (2) to re-insert applicant union which had been erroneously omitted from the Parties and Persons Bound clause - application approved - operative dates (1) ffpp 26.3.97, (2) 16.1.96 REASONS FOR DECISION This application was lodged by the Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union (the AFMEPKIU) seeking variation of the Fish, Aquaculture and Marine Products Award. The application sought amendment of Clause 16 - Holidays, Saturday, Sunday and Overtime Payments. The application arose following a dispute over the method of calculating payments due to employees who have not been allowed sufficient rest period between the completion of overtime and regular starting time. That particular dispute had been resolved following the lodgment of an application for an interpretation pursuant to section 43 of the Act, the parties subsequently agreeing to deal with the matter by way of an award variation. It came before the Commission for preliminary hearing on 8 November 1996 and the parties were formally directed into conference to discuss the application, and to report back for hearing on 29 November 1996. The applicant also sought to vary the application to include an amendment of the Parties and Persons Bound Clause. It was submitted that the applicant union had been erroneously omitted from that clause of the award following the amalgamation of the Food Preservers Union into the AFMEPKIU. There being no objection from the parties to this course of action, the request was granted and the application amended accordingly. Mr Baker, appearing for the AFMEPKIU, tendered a draft order to vary Clause 16 (Exhibit AMWU.1). He said that discussions between the parties in relation to this clause had identified ambiguities in the award which the draft provision sought to remove. Mr Baker said that the wording of the draft clause ensured that there would be no ambiguity when an employee, whether full time or casual, was required to work on a holiday, a Saturday, Sunday or receive an overtime payments or a call back, or on the issue of the rest period after overtime. Mr Cooper, for the Australian Workers' Union, Tasmania Branch (the AWU) agreed that it was appropriate that the ambiguity, as identified in Clause 16, should be removed, and that the Parties and Persons Bound clause should be corrected. Mr Fitzgerald, for the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Limited (the TCCI) supported the applications. However, he requested time to alert his members to the detail of the proposed variation to Clause 16. I am satisfied that the consent order removes the ambiguities which had become apparent in a previous matter before the Commission1 and corrects the error which had developed in the Parties and Persons Bound clause. I note for the record that the Certificate of Registration of the AFMEPKIU lists the Fish, Aquaculture and Marine Products Award as one in which the union has a registered interest. The draft order is not contrary to the public interest and it conforms with the requirements of the Act. Accordingly, the award will be varied in the manner sought. Variation of Clause 6, Parties and Persons Bound, will be operative from 16 January 1996, and variation of Clause 16, Holidays, Saturday, Sunday and Overtime Payments, from the first full pay period to commence on or after today's date. The order is attached.
F D Westwood Appearances: Date and place of hearing: 1 T6430 of 1996 |