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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 11 Hansard (20 October) . . Page.. 3393 ..

I will speak to the amendment. I am not closing the debate. During Mrs Carnell's contribution to the debate she said that there was no mention of firefighters or nurses or anybody else for that matter in the motion that I put this morning, and I think she made a good point. They were not mentioned, and they were deliberately not mentioned. It was merely a matter to deal with bursars. So what I have done in the amendment which is being circulated is mention the Government's policy on payment for other ACT government employees involved in industrial disruption. These employees have continued to be paid as they have been involved in industrial disruption.

The Government referred in its press release to one of the reasons why the bursars were not paid. I heard the earlier comments about core duties. The Government has said the bursars were not carrying out their core duties so they should not be paid. Their payment was stopped because they refused to carry out some of their core duties.

Well, I chose to find out just what sorts of duties bursars do. There are something over 50 of them, one of which is the 12-monthly report with accrual accounting at the end of the financial year. That is the one that they refused to submit in the course of the industrial action. That is the one that they were told would end up in their pay being stopped. Their pay was eventually stopped as a result of refusal to carry out that one duty. I can table this or give copies to members, whatever they want, but I am sure government members would be able to get access to it. I will read some of these things into the transcript because I think it is important to demonstrate that the issue that they decided to take industrial action on was not a core duty, it was one of their other duties. It was a very small part of the work that they carry out in a financial year.

These are the things that they do: Produce purchase orders; phone, fax or deliver it personally to the relevant firm; enter invoices, payments, credit notes; print cheques; produce receipts on a receipt printer; reconcile bank statement at the end of the month; produce finance report when requested; produce bulk collection books; write in names of students; budget-bursar discussions with principal, then prepare budget, check by principal, then submit to board; produce six-monthly report in December; and 12-monthly report with accrual accounting at the end of the financial year - that is the area of industrial disruption that their pay was stopped over.

They deal with petty cash; CPM - I do not know what that is; banking, reconcile bank statement each month; check and pay electricity, fire protection, heating, sewerage and water bills; look at ways to minimise usage; postage, maintain book and postage stamps; two computers, repair and rebuild as instructed by department; back up the server daily; enter new students into MAZE if it is working; update as necessary; produce class lists and class rolls; provide house lists for sports carnivals, et cetera; run census reports to verify daily; collect immunisation records, copy to Department of Health; collect claims and leave forms; input teachers and administrative staff; produce reports and send to Manning Clark offices. That is under the heading of CRS. I should have mentioned that.

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