T5264 and T5476
TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION Industrial Relations Act 1984 State Public Services Federation Tasmania NOMINATED PUBLIC SECTOR AWARDS Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS AWARD
Award variation - variation of nominated public sector awards and agreements by 1.5% or $8 per week, whichever is the greater, effective from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 August 1993; Award variation - variation of the Professional Engineers Award by incorporating into Clause 8 - Salaries, the salary increases available under the State Service Wages Arrangements Agreement REASONS FOR DECISION In this matter the State Public Services Federation Tasmania (SPSFT) made application to vary the awards and agreements in the attached schedule, and the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA) made application to vary the Professional Engineers Award, to reflect the outcome of the State Service Wages Arrangements set out in the following agreements registered in the Commission.
Essentially the variations sought were to include in the awards and agreements in the schedule the wage increases arising from those agreements on the following basis: 1.5% or $8 per week, whichever is the greater, payable on and from the first full pay period to commence on or after 1 August 1993; 1.5% or $8 per week payable on and from 1 April 1994; 1.0% payable on and from 1 January 1995; and 1.0% payable on and from 1 October 1995. Given that the State Service Wages Arrangements contained in the various agreements referred to above over-ride the awards requested to be varied, the parties informed the Commission that no award should be varied until a proposed State Service Wages Arrangements Amendment Agreement 1995, which was tendered in draft form, was approved and registered by the Commission. The effect of this would be to ensure that once a nominated award was varied to include the wage increases identified above, the relevant State Service Wages Agreement would no longer apply so far as actual wage rates were concerned. The State Service Wages Arrangements Amendment Agreement 1995 would stay in operation until 30 June 1996, the same expiry date as the various State Service Wages Agreements. The reason for this was said to be that apart from extinguishing the wage rates contained in the various agreements as the awards are varied, the other parts of the agreements relating to, among other things, productivity and efficiency measures, needed to stay on foot. In addition, the draft example award tendered and marked Exhibit SPSFT.2, contained a proviso which was designed to make it clear that the increases referred to above, to be inserted in the awards, were the State Service Wages Arrangements increases and were not in addition to those increases. A further amendment to the Parties and Persons Bound clause, and the Definitions clause changed the name of the controlling authority from the Minister Administering the Tasmanian State Service Act to the Minister for Public Sector Management. Mr Evans, appearing for the Australian Education Union, Tasmanian Branch (AEU), requested an adjournment to allow his organisation to consider the implications of the proposed award changes on his organisation as the AEU had not been involved in discussions with any of the parties in relation to either the award changes or the proposed agreement. Whilst recognising the AEU's concern that it may not have been consulted, the Bench considered the union's members would not be disadvantaged vis-a-vis other public sector employees by any resulting Commission decision. In the circumstances the adjournment application was rejected and the parties to the proposed new agreement were urged to include the AEU in their negotiations. Having regard to the foregoing, the variations to the awards in the attached schedule are endorsed subject to the approval and registration of the State Service Wages Arrangements Amendment Agreement 1995. The operative date of the variations will be the beginning of the first full pay period to commence on or after 13 June 1995. However if the agreement has not been approved by then the date of operation will be from the date of the Commission's approval of the document. In the interim, the parties are requested to provide the necessary draft orders to the Commission. These will be forwarded to members, as appropriate, to give effect to the variations. It is to be noted that the draft orders do not require the current salary rates to be shown as they are already in the award. Accordingly only columns A, B C and D are necessary to give effect to the variations. If the parties wish to vary other public sector awards, other than those in the schedule, to reflect the State Service Wages Arrangements, then separate applications will be required. These will be dealt with on merit at that time. The agreements listed in Attachment B cannot be dealt with in an application made in accordance with section 23 of the Act, and accordingly no finding can be made other than to dismiss that part of the application.
Appearances: Date and place of hearing: ATTACHMENT A Agricultural Officers Award ATTACHMENT B Mines Department Drilling Section Agreement
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