T2212 (12 November 1990)
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TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION Industrial Relations Act 1984 Minister administering the State Service Act GENERAL CONDITIONS OF SERVICE AWARD
Meals on duty SUPPLEMENTARY DECISION On 6 June 1990 we handed down our Reasons for Decision in relation to an application by the Minister Administering the State Service Act to vary the General Conditions of Service Award and the Hospital Employees (Public Hospitals) Award concerning "meals on duty". The Minister sought to have existing provisions concerning the amounts which may be charged for provision of meals on duty removed from both awards. In the alternative we were asked to increase the level of such meal charges to a sum which equalled the approximate cost. During subsequent negotiations The Hospital Employees Federation of Australia (Tasmania Branch) and the Minister reached a compromise agreement to increase meal charges for a lesser level than claimed, but to apply at two separate levels depending upon an employees salary. The Minister urged us to adopt this agreement in the event that we refused his preferred claim to delete the particular provisions from the two awards. The Minister's agreement to this arrangement was interim, and he put the parties on notice that charges should eventually represent full cost recovery. A third party, the Tasmanian Public Service Association, opposed the claim and was not a party to the agreement. In our decision we declined to remove the relevant provisions from the award at that time. We also were not prepared to introduce two different scales of payments for provision of the same service. Our decision was to increase certain prescribed meal charges uniformly on an interim basis only and in doing so said that the subject of the application would be more appropriately dealt with during negotiations under the Structural Efficiency Principle and referred the parties back into conference. But more particularly we said that during these negotiations further consideration should be given to the following: ". would it be more appropriate for the meals provision to be removed from the Awards; . should employees be offered a greater selection of meals; to be purchased at reasonable cost; the freedom of choice to select from the menu and be charged accordingly; and . the availability of a light meal and/or snack at minimal charge." Following a resumption of proceedings at the Minister's request we were told that no negotiations had taken place specific to this subject and this was despite initiatives taken by the Minister. After hearing all of the parties in this regard we issued the following statement on transcript: "We wish to indicate that we are disappointed at the failure of the parties to seriously address our direction to enter into negotiations in relation to a further review of meal charges before this time. This matter should not be dealt with after other current Structural Efficiency negotiations have concluded; because we do not envisage this issue being further delayed by being part of the general deliberations of the peak negotiating group. Rather, we see this as a separate issue relating only to hospitals, and to this extent it is separable. Unless those negotiations are quickly brought to a head we will have no alternative but to arbitrate the issues before us. We intend now to adjourn until early in the new year (8 and 9 January 1991) to enable these discussions to take place, at which time we expect to hear that the matter has been successfully concluded. If that is not the case we put the parties on notice that we will hear final submissions to conclude this matter."
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