T4795 - 4 August
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TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION Industrial Relations Act 1984 Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union - CHILD CARE AND CHILDRENS SERVICES AWARD
Award variation - arbitrated safety net adjustment - increase to wage rates by $8.00 per week REASONS FOR DECISION Following the handing down of the Full Bench decision on 2 August 1994 which established that the Child Care and Childrens Services Award was not a paid rates award, the matter of the variation of the award in respect of the $8.00 per week arbitrated safety net adjustment was referred to me for determination. Ms Shelley for the Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union - Tasmanian Branch (the union) submitted that all of the requirements of the Wage Fixing Principles had been satisfied to enable the award to be varied in the manner requested. She stated that the award had undergone significant structural change and that the minimum rates adjustment process had been completed. I was also informed by Ms Shelley that employers thus far had not demonstrated any real willingness to be involved in enterprise bargaining preferring instead to operate within the confines of the award. On the question of operative date Ms Shelley submitted that special circumstances existed which the Commission should have regard for and which justified the granting of retrospectivity to when the application was first heard on 17 January 1994. In support of her position she said that the delay in concluding this matter, given the intervening Full Bench proceedings, were not the fault of the union or employees subject to the award. Ms Shelley contended that the Supplementary National Wage Case decision in October 1993 (Print K9940) provided guidelines only and that the question of operative date for the $8.00 per week increase was not comprehended in the October 1993 National Wage Case decision outlined in Print K9700. I disagree with Ms Shelley's submissions on that point. The question of operative date was determined in that Supplementary National Wage Case decision. The State Wage Case decision of 24 December 1993 made it clear, on page 7, that the Bench had adopted the National Wage Case decisions published in Prints K9700 and K9940. In the circumstances the question of operative date for this arbitrated safety net adjustment has to comply with the requirements of those adopted National Wage Case decisions and the State Wage Case decision of December 1993. Having regard to the foregoing and similar observations made by the Commission in the proceedings, Mr Edwards appearing for the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Limited was able to consent to the variation to include the $8.00 in the award. His position was that if the operative date was to be anything other than the date of granting the increase, an economic incapacity argument would be mounted. In conclusion I am satisfied that all of the necessary requirements of the Wage Fixing Principles have been complied with and that the variation to the award is in the public interest. Given my operative date comments, the variation will take effect from the first full pay period to commence on or after 3 August 1994. The order will issue in due course. Turning to one further aspect. The attention of the parties was directed to a deficiency in the award in that rates of pay for Childrens Services Worker Levels 1 and 2 were set out in the award as a minimum rate only. That is, there is no stipulated supplementary payment in the supplementary column. This should be rectified having regard to relativities based on the 100 per cent wage rate in the award. I have kept this file open in the unlikely event the parties need to bring this matter to the Commission for its determination.
R.K. Gozzi Appearances: Date and Place of Hearing: |