First Provincial Building Society Ltd v Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union, Central and Southern Queensland Clerical and Administrative Branch, Union of Employees and Others [1994] QIRC 677 (1994) 147 QGIG 1558

15 58 QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT IND US TRIAL GAZETTE [ 16 December, 1994 # ## ######/1############################################# QUEENSLAND INDUSTRIAL RELA T!ONS COMMI.SSION Industrial Relations Act 1990 Pa rt 11. Division 3 Firs t Provincial Building Society Ltd . AND Austra li an Mun icipal, Adm ini strative. Clerical and Services Union, Central and Southern Queensland Cler ical and Administrative Rranch, Union of Employees an d Others f:\'o EF!Oof 199./J F IRST PROVI~ CIA L Bl/l LD l!\G SOC IETY LTD. Ei\TERPRISE FLE X IBILI TY ACREE:\fDIT CO MMISSION ER BECHI.Y 6 December I994 Enterprise Flexibility Agreement - Coverage - Intervention - Bal lot - Amendments - Negotiat ion - Comm ission satisfied th at Ac t n:quircm<:nl5 ha ve been me t - Ag rcement is Approved. DECISION First Provincial Bu il ding Society lld . (the Society) has sou gh t certificat ion nf an Enterpr ise Flexibi li ty Agreement negotiated with employees who wou ld otherwise be emp loyed un der the tenns or the Clerks' Award·-· Permanent Bu ildi ng Societies - State. A t a pre li minary hearing on 3 November 1994 the Au stral ian Municipal, A<lmin istrative. Clerical and Services Union. Central and Southern Quetmsland Clerical a nd Administrat ive Rran ch, Union of Employees (AMACSU) infonned the Commission that it had lim i te d interest in the ma tter as a resu lt of an arrangemen t with the Financ~ Sector Union of Australia. Bank Employees Section Queensla nd Branch. In dustrial Un ion of Employees (l'SI !) as io coverage of Buildi ng Societies. That or gan isation is not one to which preference has been granted under the abovementioned Award. The FSU sought to intervene in the matter and infom1ed the Com mission that. as it had only received a copy of the proposed Ag reement on the previous day, it ha d not had th e opportunity to fully infom1 itself of the contents. A further date of hearing was set for 24 November 1994 by wh ich time the parties were directed to confer on content of the proposed Agreement. The appl icant was infonned that , on that date, the proposed five year per iod of agreement and the process proposed for adjust ing wage ra tes would he subject to close scrutiny and substantial representation would be requ ired. On 24 November 199 4 the Commission was infom1ed that tlu:rc had been an exchange of information between the app licant and the FSU and fu rther that no objection was taken to th e intervention of t.he FSll . The Comm ission was a ls o infonned that, after a ba ll ot of em ployees, amendments were proposed to reduce the period of agreement from five years to three years and to insert processes to enable spec ific ,,,age increases d ur i ng the life of the Agreement rather than the non-speci fie processes originally proposed. A further amendment, balloted on by employees, impo rted the Co mmission's Statement of Policy on Tem1inat ion of Employment, Introduction of Change and Redundancy into th e Agreement. The circumstances, simply put, are that an Agreement bet ween the FSli and AMACSU, endorsed by wa y of s. l I 8A by Maher D.P. of the Austra li an Industrial Relations Commission (Prints K76 34 and K9623) grants representation rights in Building Societies to the FSU except for catain nominated Socie ti es where re presentation ri ghts have been g iven to the AMACSU. The Fi rst Provincial Bui lding Society lld. is not one of those Soc ie ti es to which the AMACSU has been gi\'en representation ri gh ts. however it is covered by the Clerks' Award - Pcn11anent Bu il ding Societies - State. No ac tion has been taken by the FSU to recrui t mem bers at the Society since the above Agreement was entered into and the information before the Commission is that no employees arc members of the AMACSU. Notwithstanding th at s. 179 of the Act extends an entitlement to be heard only to unions bound by an Award that binds the employer, and notwithstanding (he acknow ledgment by the FSU th at it was not the "eligibk un ion". and notwithstandi ng th at the Agreement referred 10 above technically expired in October 1994 , I determine that it would not be unreasonable to allow ii to intervene to express a view as to the tcm1s of th e proposed Agreement. In accordance with the d irection of the Commission to co nfer the FS U, by letter of 18 November 1994, provided details of matters ari s in g out of t he pr(l posed Agreement with wh ich it took issue. A number of these w.:rc addressed by the amendments earlier referred to. The remaining ma tters were dealt with in detail by Mr Aspromourgos. for the Society. partly by reference to the Affidavit ol'Mr Kerry 1.atler dated 24 November 1994 (Exhibi t 2). With some reservatio ns . based upon its non-involvement in the nego ti ation of the /\greernent and therefore its lack of full un derstanding of all iss ues, the FSU informed the Commission that it did not intend to oppose the certification of the Agreement. The AMACSU adopted the non-opposition expressed by the FSU on the basis that the FSU was '·the union to become the e li gible un io n" but d id raise the provisions of s. 181 (6) which enables the Commission to refuse to approve, or to adjourn an appl icati on if it is satisfied that the employer did not:- (a ) (bJ as soon as practi cable after negotiations begin, inform each eligible union about negotiations; or give the industrial organisati on a reasonable opportuni ty to ta ke pan and ag ree to be bound by the Agreemen t. In t he light of the earlier commentary in this decision as to t he position of the AMACSU and the FS U. the course of action adopted by t he emp lo yer in the conduct of these negotiations does not give any reason to the Commission to refuse to approve or to further adjourn this application. In any event the adjournment detem1 in ed by the Comm ission from 3 November 1994 has enabled ade qu ate consultation bet ween the parties. 13408__ I.DOC 16 December, 1994] QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT INDUSTRIAL GAZETT E I do no t intend to deal with the detai led material provided by the appl icant supporting the argumen t that the terms of the Agreement do not disadvantage employees. I do take into account the low key reservations expressed by the FSU b ut adopt the v ie ws expressed by Bougoure C. in EF4 of 1994 - Hog's Breath Cafe Airlie Beach, and Ross VP. in C. No . 90029 of 1994 - IOF Modular Offices (MFG) Pt y. Ltd. and C. No. 22680 of 1994 - Optus Enterprise Flexibility Agreement as to the considerati on of the package as a whole when considering any individual item which may provide a lesser benefit protection than that curren tl y provided by an app licable Award. The Agreement provi des for wage in creases and other benefits whic h, when taken as a whole, provide an improvement over the Award provisions for employees. In response to certain matters raised by the FSU the Society has given t wo undertakings. one of wh ich is related to Saturday work and has an effect of earnings of employees and t he other of wh ich gives certain undertakings regarding tl ie provision of transport to junior females who may be required to work after 8.00 p.rn . Wh ile the fi rst undertaking is of some significance in calculating the value of the packa ge th e second undertaking re lates to a matter which, in that context. has little value. The Agreement further provides that nego ti ations wi II take place to in stall a competency based c lassification structure and that within six months a framework fo r review and a schedu le for imp lementation will be fin alised. The parties have informed me that an application wi ll be made pursuant to s. 19 1 to amend the Agreement before me in accordance with the outcome of negotiations between them on th e new ciassitication structure. I am satisfied that the requ irements of s. 182 have been met. The parties have satisfied me that each o f the requirements of Pan 11 - Di vi sion 3 have been met and the Agreement is approved as from Monday, 5 Dec.embe r 1994. R.E . BECHLY. Co mmissioner. Appearances:- Mr G. Wa lker and Mr A. Aspromourgos of Livingstones Australia for First Provincial Building Society Ltd. Mr D O'Brien for the Austral ian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union, Ce ntral and Southern Queensland Clerical an d Adm inistrative Branch, Un i on of Employees and th e Federated Clerks' Un ion of Australia, No rth Queensland Branch, Union of Em pl oyees. Mr P. O' Brien of Peter O'Brien and Associates for the Employees. Mr J. Dwyer and Mr C. Pu ls for the Finance Sector Union of Australia, Bank Employees Section Queensland Branch, Industrial Union of Employees. Operative Date: 5 December 1994 Deci sion - En terprise Flexibility Agreement Released: 6 December 1994 1559 13408_ 1.DOC -- 1 of 1 --