IN THE TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION

Industrial Relations Act 1984

This is an application by the Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association of Australasia, Tasmanian Branch to vary Division D - Equipment Operators of the Building Trades Award by increasing wage rates and allowances relating to work or conditions under which work is performed by 4% under the second tier of the Wage Fixation Principles.

On 16 October 1987 1 handed down a decision arising out of applications T.886, T.899, T.911, T.916 and T.918 of 1987 which granted a 4% increase to employees under Division A, Division B - Plumbers and Division C - Builders Labourers of the Building Trades Award.

Division D - Equipment Operators was not varied at that time because there was no application to do so.

This application seeks to rectify that position.

Ms. Moncrieff, the union advocate, tendered a number of exhibits detailing the offsets which, in the main, were identical to those presented in the previous case, a summary of which is as follows:

"1. Rostered Day Off

The industry RDO's to be scheduled 15 months in advance to coincide with public holidays.

It will be possible for an employer to agree with one or more of his employees to substitute another day for the industry RDO.

2. Dispute-settling Procedures

The parties have adopted dispute-settling procedures dealing with general disputes, safety and demarcation disputes.

3. Inclement Weather

It was agreed that the "one out - all out" shall not be applied to the inclement weather award clause where:

(a) work is available under cover for some of the workforce;

(b) part of, or all of, the workforce can be transferred to another site.

No industrial action shall be taken in support of demands for payment for weekend work not provided, when such work had been planned and then cancelled on the working day immediately prior to the weekend due to inclement weather.

4. Annual Leave/Annual Close Down

It was agreed that the granting and taking of annual leave to be in accordance with the award provision.

All sites shall be considered open unless annual close down notice is given to employees in accordance with award provisions.

5. Safety Procedures

It was agreed that whenever a safety hazard is identified, all employees in the vicinity of that hazard and likely to be affected by the hazard, will be transferred to perform other meaningful work until the hazard has been rectified.

If access to safe working areas is unsafe, it will be immediately rectified and workers will use any alternative safe access to safe working areas whilst the usual access is being rectified.

No industrial action will be taken where this procedure is being carried out.

It was agreed that the purpose of this clause was to ensure the prompt rectification of safety hazards with as little disruption to on-site production as possible.

Where it is agreed between the employer and the unions that a whole site is considered unsafe, workers will not leave the site, but remain in the sheds whilst rectification is effected. As areas become safe, work shall resume in those areas.

6. Site Allowances

It was agreed that all site allowance claims will be dealt with in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the award, and without prejudice to the legal rights of any party under the Industrial Relations Act 1984 all decisions of the Commission shall be final and binding on all parties.

This agreement proscribes any industrial action to obtain a payment or condition beyond that decided by the Commission."

(See pages 2 - 5 of previous decision)

In addition, agreement was reached to insert two new provisions in the award. The first relates to equipment monitoring. This enables the employer to require employees to monitor and document the condition of the equipment that they were operating.

The second centres around the training of plant equipment operators. This provision enables persons to be engaged as trainees and to undertake a plant operator's traineeship under the Australian Traineeship System and be paid at a rate of 75% of the appropriate adult award rate of pay for the classification for which the worker is being trained.

Mr. Edwards, representing the Tasmanian Confederation of Industries and Mr. Schouten, representing the Master Builders' Association of Tasmania, urged the Commission to endorse the proposal as presented by the union as they believed the value of the offsets to be in excess of 4%.

They also stated that it would be inappropriate for the Commission to grant anything less than the amount awarded previously in this award and to do so would lead to inconsistency in the industry in terms of conditions of employment for people working on the same job site.

It was their opinion that the application was consistent with the Principles and did not offend the public interest.

The parties also agreed that the operative date be from the first full pay period to commence on or after 14 December 1987.

Decision

I see no useful purpose being served traversing the ground or more particularly the comments I made in my decision on 16 October 1987 regarding the value of the offsets for this second tier increase as I am sure all the parties understand my view on the quality of the offsets.

I also note since my last decision that Commissioner Bennett of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission has amended the National Building and Construction Industry (FEDFA) Award 1987 stating that he believed the offsets (similar to those presented in this case) were more than adequate to meet the requirements of the National Wage Case decision of March 1987.

For consistency and uniformity, I am going to accept the agreement of the parties to be operative from the first full pay period to commence on or after 14 December 1987.

An Order giving effect to this decision is attached.

R. J. WATLING
COMMISSIONER