Page 2427 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 6 August 1991
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strictly conditional on demonstrated productivity achievements and the amounts of the increases will have regard to a market rates survey - and a no extra claims provision for the life of the agreement.
In announcing this agreement in May the Federal Minister for Industrial Relations, Senator Peter Cook, pointed out that it had been 12 months since the majority of employees in the Australian Public Service received their last increase. In the light of the public sector unions' commitment to the agreement, the Federal Government considered that payment of the $12 was warranted at that stage. Further, the Federal Government, as an employer, had made important gains through structural efficiency in the Australian Public Service, and the public sector unions had given firm undertakings about its continued implementation at the workplace level. Any further increases negotiated as part of the package would be based on achieved productivity.
Mr Speaker, against that background the ACT Government's decision about the application of the Accord Mark VI to the balance of the ACT Government Service, that is, those who are not employed under the Public Service Act, has been a simple one. The ACT Government has therefore decided to embark on negotiations with the ACT Trades and Labour Council with a view to concluding similar framework agreements covering non-APS staff in the ACT Government Service. In return for the same wage adjustments, the Government will require comparable commitments from the unions to continue the structural reform process, and to productivity bargaining as the basis for wage increases.
As regards the ACT Government's business enterprises, the Government would expect that separate workplace agreements would be developed that would reflect their commercial identities and maximise the opportunities to improve their effectiveness and competitiveness. Despite the support across the industrial relations spectrum for the facilitation of new forms of enterprise bargaining, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in its national wage decision in April refused to authorise a move to a more decentralised system.
Mr Speaker, the ACT Government, therefore, has problems with this aspect of the national wage case decision, and prefers instead to proceed with the approach embodied in the accord as providing an appropriate framework for gearing wage fixation to the ongoing process of structural reforms. This is essential to ensure that we maximise the chances and the benefits of economic recovery. However, despite its dissatisfaction with aspects of the commission's decision, the Government sees the commission continuing to play an important and continuing role as the decentralised wages system evolves. The availability of enterprise bargaining does not mean the end of centralised or industry level processes. In particular, a decentralised system needs to be supported by the
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