AGD Flexible Working Hours Dispute

The PSA has been in negotiations with the Department for almost a year over Flexible Working Hours. This bulletin provides an update on progress to date and where the PSA is heading with this dispute.

Background

The trial Flexible Working Hours agreement covered most AGD staff and was terminated last year by the Director General of AGD without consultation. Since then members have had to revert to the Flexible Working Hours conditions contained in the Crown Employees (Public Service Conditions of Employment) Award of 2002.

The PSA sought legal advice regarding the Director General's decision to terminate the trial agreement. The advice received stated that the PSA should pursue an Award to cover Flexible Working Hours to prevent similar circumstances reoccurring. The PSA AGD Departmental Committee agreed on the terms of a proposed award and has been in negotiations with the Department around the proposed award since November 2003.

Negotiations

The Department does not want an Award they want an Agreementagreement and agreementa clause that can trigger the termination of the Agreementagreement.

The major areas of disagreement continue to be the bandwidth, core time, number of days flex leave that can be taken in a 12 month period and number of flex days that can be taken in as a block.

Negotiations to date have been around a document prepared by the PSA. In order to pursue an award the PSA lodged a dispute in the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) over this matter.

Subsequent conciliation negotiations have broken down and the IRC has now issued a Certificate of Failed Conciliation. The PSA is pursuing arbitration on this issue and a hearing date has been set for later this month to set firm dates for Directions and proceed to arbitration.

At the Peak Consultative Committee meeting on 23 June 2004 the Department handed the PSA its own document on a 'without prejudice' basis and asked the PSA to consider its document, even though all negotiations to that point had been based on the PSA draft document. As mentioned this document contained a trigger clause for termination of any agreement that is totally unacceptable to the PSA. Specifically the two trigger factors the Department wants the PSA to agree to are:

"Clause 18.4 The Director General may terminate this agreement at any time should:

1. the Departments Leave Liability as measured by...exceeds ..., or
2. the Departments level of Sick Leave as measured by...exceeds..."

The PSA has always maintained that sick leave and the Departments recreation leave liability should not be linked to Flexible Working Hours conditions.

Further, the Department's document specifically excludes Sheriff's Officers, a point strongly opposed by members in that classification.

Apart from the major disagreements the entire tone of the Department's document is unacceptable to the PSA and does not reflect the co-operative and respectful workplace culture that members need to deliver services while maintaining a work/life balance.

What we want

The PSA is pursuing a Flexible Working Hours Award for members in AGD that contains conditions that are standard accepted practice in other areas of the NSW Public Sector and in some business centres within AGD.

These conditions include but are not limited to:

• Up to 26 Flex days per year;
• Bandwidth 7.00am - 7.00pm
• Core time 10.00am - 3.00pm
• The ability to access flex days as quarter, half, full days or in blocks of days up to five days together.
• Acceptance that part time staff should have access to the same employment conditions as full time staff.

We want an award that cannot be terminated on the whim of a Department Head. An Agreement would only be acceptable where we trusted the Department not to unilaterally cancel the Agreement. We have attempted to negotiate with the Department but have so far been unsuccessful. This issue is now before the IRC and will proceed to arbitration.

Where to from here

The process of pursuing a Flexible Working Hours Award is a lengthy one and one that the PSA is committed to. Negotiations with the Department have broken down as it seems that no agreement can be reached on key areas. The PSA will continue to talk to the Department about any changes in their position on these key areas but the PSA is not prepared for these negotiations to indefinitely delay pursuit of an Award. As previously stated, thereThere is a Directions hearing in the IRC on 20 October 2004 where dates will be set for arbitration in this dispute.

The PSA is vigorously pursuing this matter on behalf of members in AGD. The PSA will keep members informed on progress of this dispute. This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, copy or distribute this communication. If you have received this message in error please delete the email and notify the sender.