PUBLIC SERVICE ARBITRATION AMENDMENT ACT 1978

No. 93 of 1978

An Act to amend the Public Service Arbitration Act 1920.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen, and the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:

Short title, &c.

1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Public Service Arbitration Amendment Act 1978.

(2) The Public Service Arbitration Act 1920 is in this Act referred to as the Principal Act.

Commencement

2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.

Interpretation

3. Section 3 of the Principal Act is amended by adding at the end of the definition of “Conditions of employment” in sub-section (1) the words “, not being terms or conditions of service or employment that relate to, or to the selection, or procedures for the selection, of persons for, appointment, re-appointment, employment or promotion in the Public Service”.

Order in relation to industrial situation

4. Section 12d of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by omitting from paragraph (a) of sub-section (2) the word “or” (last occurring);

(b) by adding at the end of sub-section (2) the following word and paragraph:

“or (c) orders authorizing the standing down of officers or employees (whether members of an organization or not) who are concerned in or affected by, or are likely to be concerned in or affected by, the industrial situation.”; and

(c) by inserting after sub-section (2) the following sub-sections:

“(2a) Where an officer or employee has been stood down under an order made by virtue of paragraph (c) of sub-section (2), he is not entitled, in respect of the stand-down period, to—

(a) any salary, wages or other remuneration;

(b) any allowances of a kind that are to be included in salary for the purposes of, or of any provision of, the Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1976; or

(c) any other allowances of a prescribed kind.

“(2b) Where an officer or employee has been stood down, under an order made by virtue of paragraph (c) of sub-section (2), from his employment in a qualifying service, within the meaning of the Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1976, then, for the purposes of that Act, the continuity of that employment of the officer or employee shall be deemed not to be, or to have been, broken by that stand-down period but the officer or employee shall be deemed not to be, or to have been, employed in that service during that stand-down period.

“(2c) Where an officer or employee has been stood down under an order made by virtue of paragraph (c) of sub-section (2)—

(a) any recreation leave credit or sick leave credit that is a relevant credit in relation to the stand-down period; or

(b) where that credit is required to be reduced in accordance with any other law—that credit as so reduced,

shall be reduced, or further reduced, by a period equal to—

(c) where the officer or employee was an officer or employee, as the case may be, for the whole of the relevant period in relation to that credit—

(i) the prescribed fraction of the period of that credit; or

(ii) where that credit is required to be reduced in accordance with any other law—the prescribed fraction of the period of that credit before it is so reduced; or

(d) in any other case—the prescribed fraction of the period that that credit would have been if the officer or employee had been an officer or employee, as the case may be, for the whole of the relevant period in relation to that credit and that credit was not required to be reduced in accordance with any other law,

for each working day, or part of a working day, in the stand-down period (excluding any part of that period that is not included in the relevant period in relation to that credit).

“(2d) For the purposes of the application of sub-section (2c) in relation to an officer or employee who has been stood down as mentioned in that sub-section—

(a) each of the following recreation leave credits or sick leave credits is a relevant credit in relation to the stand- down period:

(i) any recreation leave credit or sick leave credit that, but for sub-section (2c), would accrue to the officer or employee concerned during (but not on first day of) the stand-down period;

(ii) the first recreation leave credit and the first sick leave credit that, but for sub-section (2c), would accrue to the officer or employee concerned after the expiration of the stand-down period;

(b) the relevant period, in relation to a recreation leave credit or a sick leave credit, is the period of 12 months ending on the day immediately before the day of accrual of that credit; and

(c) the prescribed fraction, in relation to an officer or employee, is—

(i) where the officer or employee works a five-

“(2e) An order made by virtue of paragraph (c) of sub-section (2) authorizing the standing down of officers or employees may include directions not inconsistent with sub-sections (2a), (2b) or (2c) that, for any purpose relating to their conditions of employment as officers or employees that is specified in the order, the stand-down period is not to be taken into account, or is to be taken into account as provided in the order, and any directions so given, unless varied or revoked by another order, have effect notwithstanding any law, or any determination, that is inconsistent with the directions.