TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION

Industrial Relations Act 1984
s.23 application for award or variation of award

Health Services Union of Australia,
Tasmania No. 1 Branch
(T6264 of 1996)

DISABILITY SERVICE PROVIDERS AWARD

Award variation - third $8 arbitrated safety net adjustment - allowances - consent matter - application granted - operative date ffpp 24.7.96

REASONS FOR DECISION

The applicant in these proceedings is the Health Services Union of Australia, Tasmania No. 1 Branch. The union seeks to vary the Disability Service Providers Award to reflect the third $8 Safety Net Adjustment, recently confirmed by the State Wage Case decision of 24 July 1996. The application does not concern itself with allowances.

The employee organisations that have an award interest in this matter are:

Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union (ASU)
Health Services Union of Australia, Tasmania No. 1 Branch (HSUA)

The application proceeded by way of consent, HSUA submitting and ASU and TCCI agreeing that, at award level:

• the award, previously known as the Welfare and Voluntary Agencies Award, incorporates variations reflecting the first $8 Arbitrated Safety Net Adjustment from the first full pay period to commence on or after 18 January 1994 and the second $8 Arbitrated Safety Net Adjustment from the first full pay period to commence on or after 20 June 19951;
• the agreed operative date for the increase now sought, the first full pay period to commence on or after 24 July 1996, reflects a time period between the second and third $8 Arbitrated Safety Net Adjustments that is greater than twelve months;
• there are no offsets arising from previous wage increases reached at an enterprise level since 1 November 1991; and
• the application complies generally with the public interest requirements of s.36 of the Act.

Paragraph 7.3.2.3 of the Wage Fixing Principles, as determined by the recent State Wage Case Full Bench decision, requires that:

"... the parties commit to review the award in the context of:-

(i) consistent award formatting;
(ii) removal of discriminatory provisions;
(iii) removal of obsolete or amendment of inaccurate award provisions;
(iv) updating Clause 6 - Parties and Persons Bound;
(v) re-writing of the award in plain English;
(vi) the appropriate use of facilitative provisions;
(vii) the inclusion of an appropriate enterprise flexibility clause."

In the case of the award now before me, each of the employee organisations named above specifically commit themselves to undertaking the required review.

Although, strictly speaking, the question of varying allowances that relate to work or conditions does not arise in this case, I granted leave to Mr Fitzgerald of the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Limited to make a statement concerning the agreement between his organisation and the Tasmanian Trades and Labour Council on the matter.

Mr Fitzgerald said the peak organisations agree that, in the case of each of the three Arbitrated Safety Net Adjustments, the particular $8 increase, as a proportion of the base tradesman's rate applicable at the time, represents the following percentages for the purpose of adjusting allowances:

First Adjustment 1.92%
Second Adjustment 1.88%
Third Adjustment 1.85%

The peak organisations also agree that the cumulative effect of the above movements is 5.75%.

I believe the submissions and expressions of agreement put to me and recorded above fully satisfy the requirements of the current Wage Fixing Principles. Accordingly, I will vary the award in the manner sought by the applicant, with effect from the first full pay period to commence on or after 24 July 1996. My order, in that form, will follow shortly.

B.R. Johnson
DEPUTY PRESIDENT

Appearances:
Mr C. Brown for the Health Services Union of Australia, Tasmania No. 1 Branch.
Mrs H.J. Dowd for the Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union.
Mr W.J. Fitzgerald for the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Limited.

Date and Place of Hearing:
1996
August 2
Hobart

1 Except for Summit Industries, where the operative date was the first full pay period to commence on or after 22 May 1995.