Local Government (State) Award Schedule of award variations

Transcription

1 Local Government (State) Award 2014 Schedule of award variations BACKGROUND: The nominal term of the Local Government (State) Award 2010 (the 2010 Award ) expired on 31 October However, clause 41(viii) of the 2010 Award provided that In agreeing to this Award, the parties have undertaken not to pursue increases in rates of pay and existing allowances (other than to increase existing allowances in accordance with the terms of this Award) until 1 July LGNSW commenced consulting with member councils in early 2013 with a view to identifying the component parts of an employers log of claims for negotiating a new award that: is affordable; recognises councils future needs and capacity; builds on the history of industry award negotiations; and is consistent with LGNSW s objectives. In accordance with past practice, an Award Working Party ( AWP ) was established to assist with the collection and dissemination of award related information between LGNSW and councils. Members of the AWP were selected following a nomination process to ensure representation across the Division of Local Government s groupings of councils. The AWP was chaired by LGNSW s Industrial Relations Unit and included approximately eighteen (18) representatives from metropolitan, regional and rural councils, as well as two representatives nominated by the Local Government Managers Association ( LGMA ). The AWP was used throughout the award negotiation process to obtain councils feedback on proposed award variations. In approximately November 2013, the parties to the award exchanged their respective logs of claim, and the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales ( NSWIRC ) was notified of an industrial dispute for the purpose of obtaining the Commission s assistance in the negotiations. In late May 2014, the parties representatives in the award negotiations reached in-principle agreement on the content of a proposed without prejudice draft Local Government (State) Award 2014 (the Draft 2014 Award ). On 4 June 2014, LGNSW hosted an Award briefing in Sydney with council general managers and human resource managers to identify any issues/concerns that may have been overlooked and/or which required further consideration. The briefing resulted in some minor changes being made to the Draft 2014 Award. On 6 June 2014, the LGNSW Board considered and endorsed the Draft 2014 Award, which was then formally offered to LG unions as a total package. On 25 June 2014, the NSWIRC ratified the Local Government (State) Award 2014 ( 2014 Award ). The 2014 Award operates from the first full pay period to commence on or after 1 July

2 AWARD VARIATIONS: The following is a summary of the new and/or varied award provisions (Note: clause references relate to clauses in the 2014 Award unless otherwise indicated). Clause 2 [Statement of Intent] The clause has been amended to include new commitments by the parties to cooperate positively to increase productivity, financial sustainability, promote job security, encourage innovation, and promote cooperative and open change management processes. Clause 4 [Definitions] The clause has been amended to include a new definition of employer. The definition of employer is broader than Council (which is used in the 2010 Award) and includes council controlled corporations that are declared to be nonnational system employers (also see the comments relating to clause 43, Area, Incidence and Duration). The word employer is used throughout the Award in substitution of the word Council. Other incidental changes to definitions have been made. Clause 6 [Rates of Pay] The clause has been amended to remove an obsolete reference to the Workers Compensation Act The provision that existed at subclause 6(iv) of the 2010 Award is inconsistent with prevailing legislation. Clause 7 [Salary Systems] The clause has been amended to clarify that council salary systems may provide for progression based on employee performance. Subclause 7(xii) has also been amended to ensure that existing employees are not disadvantaged by this change. Clause 11 [Payment of Employees] Subclause 11(iv) has been amended to clarify that councils are required to make payroll deductions for union membership fees where authorised in writing by the employee, and can make payroll deductions for other reasons. The revised subclause reflects the prevailing industry practice. Subclause 11(v) has been amended to include a one week cap on the period that councils are required to maintain salary payments to employees that are prevented from attending work due to bushfire or other climatic circumstance beyond their control. Subclause (vi) introduces a new Award mechanism that enables councils to recover a potential shortfall in workers compensation insurance payments where such insurance payments are less than the sick leave payments paid by the council (arising from recent changes to workers compensation, injured workers now receive 95% of ordinary time earnings for the first 13 weeks of incapacity). Clause 12 [Annualised Salaries] A new clause has been included that will allow councils to annualise rates of pay, penalty rates and the monetary value of various other award entitlements. Subclause 15(i) [Adverse Working Conditions Allowances] Disability Allowances have been renamed Adverse Working Conditions Allowances and the clause has been amended to remove ambiguity. Eligibility for the Level 1 Adverse Working Conditions Allowance has been expanded to include designated childcare employees whilst changing nappies, and employees whose duties involve animal destruction whilst destroying cats and dogs. Employees in these new categories will be entitled to the allowance for the actual time worked by direction under the adverse working condition, with a minimum payment of 1 hour per day on which the work is performed. 2

3 Subclause 15(iii) [Sewer Chokages] The clause has been amended to clarify the entitlement to the sewer chokages allowance. Subclause 15(ix) [Certificates, Licenses and other Approvals] A new subclause has been inserted that will require councils to reimburse designated employees in child-related work for the cost of undertaking a Working With Children Check. Working with Children Checks currently cost $80 and are valid for 5 years. Subclause 15(xi) [Travelling Allowance] The subclause has been amended to provide that the travelling allowance will now be payable for travel in both directions when employees are required to travel to a different work location than their usual work location. Employees will now only be eligible for the travelling allowance if they are required to travel a distance that is in excess of the distance usually travelled by the employee. Subclause 15(xv) [Civil Liability Allowance] The clause has been amended to clarify the entitlement to civil liability allowance. Subclause 15(xvi) [Accreditation of council employees as Chartered Professional Engineers] A new subclause has been inserted requiring councils to pay or reimburse eligible engineering employees for the reasonable costs associated with obtaining and/or maintaining accreditation as a chartered professional engineer. The new entitlement applies where eligible engineering employees are required by their council to have such accreditation. Subclause 16B(iii) [Termination of leaseback vehicle arrangements] The subclause has been amended to clarify that a council may terminate or suspend a leaseback vehicle arrangement where an employee is demoted, provided that at least two weeks notice is given. Subclause 16C [Variation of leaseback vehicle arrangements] The subclause has been amended to remove ambiguity. Clause 18 [Hours of Work] The clause has been amended to enable councils to employ employees in designated work function areas to work ordinary hours on weekends, subject to the payment of the applicable shift penalty. The designated work function areas include crematoriums and cemeteries, road construction and maintenance, sale yards, stores and depots, and trades functions. Under the 2010 Award, the ordinary hours of work for these work function areas is restricted to between Monday and Friday, meaning that any work on weekends is overtime and can be refused by the employee(s) concerned. Clause 19 [Overtime] A new subclause 19(vi) has been included that will enable councils to direct employees to take accrued time in lieu of overtime if employees have accrued in excess of one week s time in lieu or for the purposes of an annual close down. Subclause 19B [Hours of Work Flexibility Agreements] A new subclause has been included that allows councils, by agreement with employees in Professional/Specialist Band 3 or Executive Band 4 of the Award, to partially displace the overtime provisions of the award, subject to the payment of an allowance of at least 10 percent of the employee s salary system rate of pay. 3

4 Subclause 19C [On Call] A new subclause 19C(vii) has been included that will require councils to pay on-call employees a minimum payment of 30 minutes overtime per day on which they are called out to perform overtime work. Subclause 19E [Remote Response] A new subclause has been included that will require councils to pay on-call employees for the overtime work that they perform whilst remotely responding to call outs over the telephone. The entitlement will only apply where the council requires the employee to be on call, and will not apply to calls that result in the employee returning to work. The clause is modelled on a similar provision that exists under the federal Local Government Industry Award 2010 and which applies in WA and NT. Subclause 20A [Holidays/General] The subclause has been amended to provide that seven day a week rotating roster employees will no longer be entitled to an additional days leave for each holiday day that they are rostered off work. Instead, such employees will now be entitled to five week s annual leave (also see subclause 21D(i)). The amendment brings the award into line with what occurs in many other industries where seven day shift worker arrangements exist. Subclause 20A(ii) [NAIDOC Day] The subclause is amended to provide that where an eligible employee has provided their employer with less than seven days notice of their intention to take a NAIDOC day holiday, such leave shall not be unreasonable refused by the employer. Subclause 21A [Sick Leave] A new subclause has been inserted to highlight that councils may, at their discretion, allow employees to take their sick leave at half pay. At subclause 21A(iii) the words a doctor have been replaced with the words a qualified medical/health practitioner to ensure that consistent terminology is used throughout the clause. Subclause 21B [Carers Leave] The clause has been amended to remove ambiguity. The clause now refers to weeks instead of days, as this is considered more appropriate for part-time employees. Subclause 21C [Emergency Services Leave] A new subclause has been included that provides eligible employees with an entitlement to up to 5 days paid emergency services leave per year of service to participate in designated voluntary emergency management activities. Such leave will be debited from employees accumulated sick leave balance and there are restrictions on when the leaved may be accessed. The clause is largely modelled on the unpaid emergency service leave provisions that exist under federal industrial relations jurisdiction. Subclause 21D [Annual Leave] The clause has been redrafted to improve the logical flow of provisions and to remove ambiguity. Under the revised clause, seven day rotating roster employees will now be entitled to five weeks annual leave, and will no longer be entitled to an additional days leave for each holiday day that they are rostered off work (also see subclause 20A). Subclause 21E [Long Service Leave] The subclause has been amended to clarify that a council may direct employees to take long service leave. 4

5 Subclause 21J(iii) [Adoption Leave] The entitlement to paid adoption leave has been increased for eligible employees. Eligible employees will now be entitled to up to 9 weeks paid adoption leave (18 weeks at half pay) when adopting a child under 5 years of age, and 4 weeks paid adoption leave (8 weeks at half pay) when adopting a child that is between the ages of 5 and 16 years of age. Subclause 21J(iv) [Family Reunion Leave] A new subclause has been included that provides eligible employees who were adopted under a closed adoption practice with an entitlement to up to five days family reunion leave from their accumulated sick leave balance to reunite with their biological parent(s) for the first time. Subclause 21K [Bereavement Leave] The entitlement to bereavement leave has been revised. Under the 2010 Award, eligible employees were entitled to four days bereavement leave per occurrence however the entitlement did not apply in respect of the death of an aunt, uncle, niece or nephew. Under the modified provisions, employees will be entitled to up to four days bereavement leave associated with the death of an immediate family member, and up to two days bereavement leave for the death of an extended family member (the entitlement has been increased for some family members and reduced for others). Subclause 21L(ii) [Union Training Leave] The clause has been amended to clarify that eligible employees who attend trade union training shall not suffer a loss of pay, as opposed to saying that such training is with pay. Subclause 21M [Leave Without Pay] The clause has been amended to remove ambiguity. Clause 22 [Flexibility for Work and Family Responsibilities] The clause has been amended to encourage and promote flexible work and leave arrangements where appropriate, and to recognise that working from home is an example of a flexible work and leave arrangement. Clause 24 [Health and Wellbeing] A new clause has been included to promote health and wellbeing programs in councils. The new clause allows councils, at their discretion, to grant employees up to two days paid leave per calendar year to participate in a health and/or wellbeing activity. Such leave will be debited from employees accumulated sick leave balance and there are restrictions on when the leaved may be accessed. It is anticipated that the leave will be used for proactive preventative health measures, such as to allow employees to attend an annual medical/health check, dental visit and/or skin cancer check. Clause 26 [Casual Employment] The clause has been amended to clarify that the casual loading is paid in lieu of any entitlement to long services leave and other forms of paid leave under the award. This amendment is intended to remove an ambiguity with the Long Service Leave Act. Clause 28 [Labour Hire] A new labour hire clause has been included which provides that an employee of a labour hire business shall not replace an employee of council on a permanent basis. Clause 29 [Multiple Employment] A new clause has been included which will allow councils to employ staff in more than one position and under separate contracts of employment. 5

6 Clause 31 [Training and Development] The clause has been amended to encourage opportunities for career path development. Clause 32 [Consultative Committees] The clause has been amended to encourage an open exchange of views during consultative committee meetings. Clause 33 [Appointment and Promotion] The clause has been amended to provide that where an internal job applicant is unsuccessful in their application they have a right to request a review of their individual education and training needs. Clause 34 [Term Contracts] The clause has been amended to provide that councils may use fixed term contracts of employment to temporarily replace employees working reduced hours under a flexible work and leave arrangement, and to employ staff to perform seasonal work. Clause 37 [Work, Health and Safety] The clause has been redrafted to remove unnecessary duplication and overlap with councils obligations under the Work Health and Safety legislation and associated codes of practice. Clause 39 [Workplace Change] The clause has been amended to require that where a proposed change in organisation structure is likely to have significant effects on employees and/or result in a reduction in the size of the council s workforce, the council shall notify the union(s) whose members may be adversely affected by the proposed change at least twenty-eight days before the change in implemented, unless otherwise agreed. The clause has also been amended to provide that a council shall not unreasonably refuse a request by an employee to work through the notice of termination of employment period under the award. The clause has also been amended to include a requirement for councils to provide the reason(s) where they choose not to assist employees with submitting an in-house bid during a competitive tendering process. [Competitive Tendering] The provisions at clause 36 of the 2010 Award have been deleted. Clause 40 [Council Agreements] A new subclause has been included to clarify the process and circumstances in which council agreements may be terminated. Council agreements which have reached their nominal expiry date will now be able to be terminated in the same manner as an enterprise agreement made under the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (i.e. by the giving of 3 months notice). [Award Implementation Committee] The provisions of clause 38 of the 2010 Award have been deleted. There is no longer a requirement for an award implementation committee. Clause 42 [Leave Reserved] The clause has been amended to include leave reserved for the parties to apply to vary the award to reflect possible legislative changes to parental leave and fringe benefits tax. Leave is also reserved for the parties to apply to vary the award to allow for the taking of annual leave at either half or double pay by agreement. This latter issue is seen as beneficial to both employers and employees but can only proceed if changes are made to the Annual Holidays Act

7 Clause 43 [Area Incidence and Duration] The Area Incidence and Duration clause (AID clause) has been redrafted. The AID clause has also been amended in a manner that will result in the award applying to corporations that are controlled by one or more councils and which are declared to be non-national system employers (i.e. council controlled corporations that are covered by the NSW state industrial relations jurisdiction). The proposed AID clause is modelled on a similar clause in the federal Local Government Industry Award. [Rates of pay] The follow pay increases are provided for: o o o 2.6% from the first full pay period to commence on or after 1 July 2014, with a minimum increase of $ % from the first full pay period to commence on or after 1 July 2015, with a minimum increase of $ % from the first full pay period to commence on or after 1 July 2016, with a minimum increase of $ [Increases in allowances] Monetary allowances are to be increased in accordance with past practice: o expense related allowances are to be adjusted to reflect movements in the applicable ABS indicator. o work related allowances are generally to be adjusted according to the same percentage increase for increases in rates of pay. The travelling allowance will not be adjusted in 2014 so as to minimise the cost impact associated with paying the allowance for travel in both directions. o Tool allowances are to be adjusted in line with the Crown Employees (Skills Trades) Award. 7