Page 3578 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 8 December 1992
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allowable under the agreement. So, it is a major enterprise agreement. Staff covered by the agreement, which is the great majority of the ACT Government Service, will receive a 2 per cent pay increase on the commencement of the agreement. Two economic adjustments of 1.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent will then be granted in March 1993 and March 1994; but, as has been indicated, no national wage increases will be extended to staff over that time. In effect, there will be no double counting. The agreement delivers a general framework for local workplace productivity enhancement, and adjustments to working arrangements, pay and conditions may emerge from that level of local productivity bargaining over the course of the next two years.
The agreement also provides for the immediate application of a broad range of efficiency measures which will have a general effect across the ACT Government Service. These will include enhanced permanent part-time work arrangements, measures to reduce absenteeism, streamlining efficiency procedures, greater use of joint selection committees, and arrangements for permanent appraisal of senior staff. The ACT Government Service agreement will apply to all staff under the Public Service Act and to those whose terms and conditions are linked with the Public Service Act arrangements. It has also been noted that other groups such as nurses, teachers and firefighters are being given an opportunity to enter into similar enterprise agreements, but specific terms and the date of the introduction of those agreements may be different from the general agreement.
The agreement is a good one for both management and staff. I think it demonstrates the effectiveness of the current industrial relations system, which has been cultured, if you like, since just after the turn of the century and provides the essential elements of conciliation and arbitration. In this instance, the most important element - that is, the ability of unions and management to get on with the job against the background of a conciliation and arbitration system - has proved very effective and is one which, I think, will survive for a long time.
We intend to ensure that the enterprise bargaining arrangement that has been entered into in relation to the ACT Government Service survives for its planned time and that it proves to be an effective vehicle in industrial relations terms for management, the community, the Government, and those most importantly affected by it - the workers who are connected with it.
MR DE DOMENICO: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I thank the Minister for his long answer. He has answered one part of the question, but not the other part. Does the Minister agree with the concept of agency-based productivity agreements and will agency-based productivity agreements be part of any future ACT Government Service arrangements?
MR BERRY: I think Mr Costello spoke in the context of the Commonwealth public sector when he said, "There aren't any doors that won't be knocked on when it comes to negotiating within the framework of the enterprise agreement". If Mr De Domenico thinks that agency-based agreements are something the same as those which are planned by John Howard, Jeff Kennett and company, they are not. This is an overall enterprise agreement that affects all of the ACT Government Service and, as is the case in the Commonwealth, the doors will all be knocked on as those areas that are affected by the need to comply with the enterprise agreement come to terms with it and negotiate a settlement in terms of the arrangements that have been agreed between the parties. What I am saying to you is that the enterprises affected by the agreement will abide by the decision to proceed down that path.
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