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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2881 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

This means that casual employees whose employment is on a regular and systematic basis and where there is a reasonable expectation of continuing employment will in future be clearly covered by the provisions of the Act. This will overcome the present ambiguity and provide certainty for employers in calculating future long service leave liabilities.

The Bill also overcomes a current drafting inadequacy in relation to the interaction between this Act and the Long Service Leave (Building and Construction Industry) Act 1981 which could result in some employees being excluded from the benefit of either Act. The particular problem arises because the coverage provided by the building and construction industry Act is defined, in part, by awards. Situations arise where employees may remain in the employ of the one employer but move to higher levels than contemplated by the classification structure in awards, thereby effectively ruling them out of coverage under the building and construction industry Act. The amendments proposed by this Bill will ensure that such employees cannot fall through the crack and possibly lose access to entitlements.

A new provision is inserted which provides a method of calculation of the long service leave payments for employees whose employment status altered from full-time to casual or part-time within a two-year period of the entitlement becoming due, so that the ordinary remuneration on which the payment is made is averaged over the previous five years. This provision aims to balance out what is often perceived to be an inequity where an employee has spent most of the period of accrual as a full-time employee but, for whatever reasons, has their employment status altered just before the opportunity to take long service leave occurs, with a consequential reduction in the payment due.

The Bill recognises completed months of service, not just completed years of service. Again, this provision aims to overcome an inequity whereby an employee with, say, 13 years and 11 months of service who is terminated is paid for only 13 years. The Bill provides for such an employee to be paid 13 and eleven-twelfths years' long service leave. It provides for a more relevant set of records to be kept by an employer so that the employee, or an authorised officer if the matter results in a disagreement between an employee and employer, has a reasonable opportunity to check on entitlements.

Finally, the Bill provides for a more complete set of grievance management and enforcement procedures which are aimed at resolving disagreements through conciliation rather than through the court system. The procedures establish a conciliation process and then a power for directions to be issued, should conciliation fail. Naturally, there are appeal processes in place.

Mr Speaker, I now refer to the Annual Leave (Amendment) Bill 1997, which I will soon table. The key changes which this Bill will make to the Annual Holidays Act 1973 are as follows: It alters the name of the Act to the Annual Leave Act 1973, to better reflect the subject matter of the legislation and to distinguish it more clearly from the Holidays Act 1958, which deals with public holidays. It provides for employees who are paid wholly by commission to accrue an annual holiday entitlement. Currently, the legislation provides for only employees paid wholly by salary, or partly by salary and partly by commission, to accrue an entitlement.

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