[2207] Ndustria GENERAL ORDER— Pa a O Division 3— State Review Of
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[2207] ndustria Reasons for Decision. GENERAL ORDER— THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER: This is the unani- Pa A O Division 3— mous decision of the Commission in Court Session. On 14th January this year the Commission in Court State Review of National Wage Session delivered its reasons for making a General Order restraining increases in remuneration (63 Decision, 1983— W.A.I.G. 257). The Order was made to operate for a period of six months and thereafter until further Minimum Wage Order. The Commission concluded by saying that it expected that the matter would next be the subject of proceedings before this tribunal after a review fore- BEFORE THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN shadowed by the Australian Conciliation and Arbi- INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION tration Commission in a decision which it had given No. 461 of 1983. on 23rd December, 1982 imposing a pause on improvements in pay and conditions. In the matter of the Industrial Arbitration Act, 1979 The results of that review are to be found in the and in the matter of proceedings under Division decision of the Australian Commission in the 3 of Part II of the said Act. National Wage Case 1983 (Print F2900). By virtue of Before the Commission in Court Session. section 51 of the Industrial Arbitration Act, 1979 that decision constitutes the principal subject for con- Chief Industrial Commissioner E. R. Kelly Esq; sideration in these proceedings. In addition, there is Senior Commissioner D. E. Cort and Commissioner before the Commission an application by the Trades B. J. Collier. and Labor Council (the T.L.C.) for a General Order The 13th day of October, 1983. which, although containing several claims when Mr A. R. Beech on behalf of the Trades and Labor lodged in the Commission, may for practical purposes Council of Western Australia. be considered as being limited now to an application Mr G. M. Overman (of Counsel) and with him Mr for an increase in the minimum wage. I. G. Kins on behalf of the Attorney General for the The National Wage Decision 1983 reinstituted a State of Western Australia and the Public Service system of centralised wage fixing, granted an increase Board. of 4.3 per cent based on CPI movement for the Mr C. D. Lambert on behalf of the Confederation March and June quarters, 1983 subject to the unions of Western Australian Industry (Inc.). giving a prescribed commitment in relation to extra claims and laid down a set of principles designed to Mr L. H. Pilgrim intervening on behalf of the Aus- govern the processing of claims before that Com- tralian Mines and Metals Association. mission over the next two years. Mr D. R. Seal intervening on behalf of the Civil The Australian Commission found justification for Service Association of Western Australia Incorpor- its return to a centralised system of indexed wage ated. rates and the consequent partial lifting of the pause Mr C. B. Parks intervening on behalf of the Elec- on improvements dn pay and conditions in three trical Contractors' Association of Western Australia significant developments which had occurred since (Union of Employers). the pause was instituted. They were first, the Accord Mr T. Lynch intervening on behalf of Hamersley between the Australian Labor Party and the Aus- Iron Pty. Limited. tralian Council of Trade Unions (the A.C.T.U.) on a 29521—1 2208 WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE. [23rdNovember, 1983 pricing and incomes approach to economic manage- There are several reasons for which we are dis- ment; secondly, the National Economic Summit Con- posed to favour the Confederation's view and which ference and the Joint Communique which resulted in some measure displace our earlier reasons for from it; and thirdly, the consensus between partici- adopting the more flexible approach. The reduced ca- pants at a conference convened and chaired by the pacity to improve rates of pay and conditions because President of the Australian Commission as a conse- of the economic recession combined with the need for quence of the Communique. Those three develop- the Commission to be seen to be acting both fairly ments are described in sufficient detail in the and with consistency led the Commission constituted National Wage Decision and it is unnecessary for us by all of its Commissioner members to conclude in to repeat that description. It is enough to say that January last that any application which might lead to they are an essential part of the background to our an increase in labour costs should be dealt with by decision in these proceedings. the Commission in Court Session. In our opinion, For a system based on full indexation to be sus- that view is still valid and that approach still necess- tainable economically and industrially the Australian ary. Next, as it is reasonable to assume that an equi- Commission held that a number of requirements rec- table base has been established in all our awards and ognised in the Accord, the Summit Communique and as we do not propose following variations made else- the submissions of the parties before it must be met. where to rates and conditions unless they have been Those requirements are spelt out in detail at pages 17 made in accordance with principles that are compat- to 22 of the National Wage Decision and for that ible with the restraint that must necessarily ac- reason if is unnecessary that we repeat them. company the indexation of wage rates, express ad- Whether full indexation is sustainable, even if those herence to the principle of comparative wage justice requirements are met, is doubted by many in the is not of as much importance for the time being as it community, but we believe that it certainly is not was previously. That is particularly the case because, sustainable if they are not. in circumstances in which the dictates of justice de- mand that a comparison be made, we are satisfied One of those requirements was that there should that there is scope to make it within the Federal prin- be consistency between the State and Federal ciples. tribunals in the operation of the system and the Aus- We have held on previous occasions that the pro- tralian Commission expressed the hope "that the visions of the Act prevent the establishment of an State tribunals will find themselves able to accept in anomalies conference in this jurisdiction. To some substance" what it had done for the period for which extent that remains true inasmuch as we are unable it had done it. All parties appearing before us to require the T.L.C., the Attorney General, or the endorsed that view. In doing so, most of them recog- Confederation to participate in such a procedure and nised the need for the Australian Commission's de- we do not have a suitable procedure for dealing with cision to be modified in some respects to cater for matters which have not been formally lodged in the local circumstances. Commission and allocated to a Commissioner. How- To meet the requirements of the system the Aus- ever, an amendment last year to section 16 of the Act tralian Commission formulated 11 principles de- will enable a procedure similar to the Federal signed, as we have remarked, to govern the pro- Anomalies Conference procedure to be instituted. cessing of claims before that Commission over the Finally, we are moved by the Accord, the Joint next two years. In many respects the principles are Communique and the submissions made to the similar to those adopted by that Commission be- National Wage Bench to think that there may now be tween 1975 and 1981, but the new principles differ in sufficient commitment to a centralised system to en- important respects from the earlier ones, not only in able it to be given effective application in the rela- the terms in which they are cast, but in the degree of tively short term presently envisaged for it. At a time consensus which underpins them and in the express when it is desirable that all Australians should be and unequivocal commitments given by the A.C.T.U. pulling together, industrial tribunals should not be in the proceedings from which they emanated. seen to be of differing opinions beyond the extent During the period just mentioned, this Commission that it is necessary for them to be so. The substantial avoided too precise a formulation of principles to ac- adoption by State tribunals of the Federal principles company the indexation of awards. Our reasons for seems to us to be likely to enhance the probability of doing so have been spelt out in earlier decisions. achieving that degree of national commitment which They included the fact that primary responsibility is essential if the purposes of the centralised system for the resolution of anomalies, inequities and special are to be achieved. and extraordinary problems resided with individual For all those reasons, but subject to what follows Commissioners; that the principle of comparative we have decided to express our intended approach to wage justice so pervaded the making of State awards applications for improvements in wages and con- that it needed to be retained to ensure that in ad- ditions in the form and substantially in the terms of verse economic circumstances employees in Western the Australian Commission's principles. Australia were not called upon to make a greater sac- Those principles as adapted for use in this rifice tlisn tnsir 001iHt.srp3.rts in otiisr Ststssj find, jurisdiction fire set out at the end of these reasons. that some of the Australian Commission's principles Apart from explanatory remarks we comment only were not capable of adoption here because of pro- upon significant points of difference between the ad- visions of the State Act.