T13890
TASMANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION
Industrial Relations Act 1984
s.23 application for award or variation of award
Minister administering the State Service Act 2000
(T13890 of 2012)
Public Sector Awards
FULL BENCH:
PRESIDENT P L LEARY
DEPUTY PRESIDENT T J ABEY
COMMISSIONER J P McALPINE
HOBART, 29 June 2012
Application to vary public sector awards where MASSA 2000 has award interest to insert Tasmanian minimum wage into salary/wage clauses
DECISION
[1] This is an application by the Minister administering the State Service Act 2000 (MASSA) to vary a number of awards of the Tasmanian Industrial Commission (TIC) to insert a minimum wage clause.
[2] The application has the consent of the parties.
[3] Other than the Police Award, the Governor of Tasmania Staff Award and the Parliamentary Staff Award all Public Sector awards should now include a minimum wage provision.
[4] The application seeks to vary the following awards:
• AWU (Tasmanian State Sector)
• Health and Human Services (Tasmanian State Service)
• Medical Practitioners (Public Sector)
• Miscellaneous Workers (Public Sector)
• Nurses (Tasmanian Public Sector) Award 2005
• Police Departmental Employees
• Polytechnic and Skills Institute Teaching Staff
• Tasmanian Fire Fighting Industry Employees
• Teaching Service (Tasmanian Public Sector) Award 2005
[5] Accordingly the application is approved and the above awards shall be varied in accord with the application and with the consent of the parties.
[6] The Commission has reviewed all awards remaining with the TIC to ensure that they contain standard minimum entitlements.
[7] It seems that in many cases awards and enterprise agreements are almost identical in terms and provide the same entitlements. To be consistent with the general approach taken with enterprise bargaining, awards should be minimum safety net awards which provide standard and minimum conditions and enterprise agreements should reflect current and total entitlements.
[8] It is an unnecessary duplication, and possibly confusing, to continue with both awards and enterprise agreements providing the same entitlements. In contradiction some awards have not been varied for years so do not even reflect minimum conditions.
[9] The parties should address the issue and make the necessary adjustments to create proper minimum safety net awards which provide the basis for enterprise agreements.
[10] Or in the alternative a system of awards which provide current and total entitlements thereby removing the need for enterprise agreements.
[11] Any final outcome should be consistent in approach as having two industrial instruments providing mostly the same entitlements is inefficient and possibly confusing.
P L Leary
President
<TIC006/2012>