T2417 - 26 November
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TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION Industrial Relations Act 1984 Tasmanian Technical Colleges Staff Society and The Minister Administering the State Service Act 1984 TECHNICAL AND FURTHER EDUCATION STAFF AWARD
Structural Efficiency Principles REASONS FOR DECISION The Technical and Further Education Staff Award was varied in August 1990 to give effect to the second instalment structural efficiency adjustment. At that time the Tasmanian Technical Staff Society (the Society) and the Minister Administering the Tasmanian State Service Act 1984 (the Minister) persuaded the Commission that the second instalment adjustment should be granted for this award on the basis of the significant initiatives contained in a Memorandum of Understanding (Exhibit W2). The Memorandum of Understanding (the Memorandum) set out in some detail the proposals the parties intended to develop as a consequence of ongoing negotiations foreshadowed to be held beyond the date of the granting of the second structural efficiency adjustment. In that regard the Commission accepted that the Memorandum would provide for immediate structural changes in the award through the rationalisation of classifications and the introduction of Advanced Skill Teacher I and in addition that it would provide an ongoing focus for special case negotiations. With regard to this latter observation the Society informed the Commission that the understandings inherent in the matters contained in the Memorandum had not been progressed with the Minister because of the less than positive approach of the Minister's representatives in negotiations. The Society submitted that it believed that negotiations on Memorandum item 3 - Classification Structure; item 11 - Promotion for AST2 and AST3 positions as well as issues going to Employee Appraisal, Professional Development and the TAFE Special Case have been decidedly one sided with not one documented proposal coming from the Minister's negotiators throughout the whole of this year. It was against the foregoing background that the Society requested the Commission to stay the 1992 increases in teaching hours for Technical and General Studies Teachers. The increases in hours for those teachers are as a consequence of the second structural efficiency measures endorsed by the Commission as set out in the Memorandum. Whilst the Commission is sympathetic to the position of the Society, I do not intend to issue a stay order. I indicate however the concern of the Commission that the clear thrust of the Memorandum in respect of the special case appears to have been abandoned. In the special case proceedings to date, and quite apart from the matters raised by the Society to not increase teaching hours, the Commission has given the representatives for the Minister every opportunity to dissuade it from its view that the Memorandum no longer has any part to play in those particular proceedings. Indeed the Commission has advised the Society in an earlier hearing that it would be in its best interests to prosecute each and every component of its claim notwithstanding that it and for that matter the Commission held expectations, arising out of the second structural efficiency hearing and the Memorandum that substantial progress would have been made on issues impacting on the special case. Be that as it may, there is nothing in the Memorandum that requires either the Society or the Minister to reach agreement on the matters specified in that document. It is not sufficient for the Society to persuade the Commission that negotiations have not been productive or that "constructive and positive consultation" (item 14 of the Memorandum) had not occurred in order for it to be successful in its request for a stay order. Clearly discussions took place during the course of this year but these did not produce the result the Society had wished for. That may even have been the outcome, had the discussions from the Society's perspective, been constructive and positive. The issue in this particular matter is that the Society considers that it has been deliberately frustrated in its attempts to progress Memorandum of Understanding initiatives including special case issues. In the event the Commission has in these proceedings directed the parties to prepare position statements in respect of the matters contained in the Memorandum including classification structure, employee appraisals, professional development and advanced skills teacher 2 and 3. Unresolved issues will be determined by the Commission in the special case proceedings. I consider it appropriate to add that nothing has been put to me so far in the special case proceedings which would support that the Minister has, as set out in item 14 of the Memorandum been committed to a -
In the circumstances it is of regret to the Commission that the Memorandum has not provided the continuum for the special case that was intended when it was endorsed by the Commission in December 1990.
R K Gozzi Appearances: Date and Place of Hearing: |