PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY Single Copy $1.70 Annual Subscription $35.00 Sub-Part 1. WEDNESDAY, 28 JANUARY 1981 Vol. 61—Part 1. PURSUANT TO SECTION 16. SUBSECTION (2) (b) OF THE INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION ACT, 1979 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Chief Industrial Commissioner of the Western Australian Industrial Commission, pur- suant to section 16, subsection (2) (b) of the Industrial Arbitration Act, 1979. For period 1st July, 1979 to 30th June, 1980. TO THE HON. R. J. O'CONNOR, ML,A., MINISTER FOR LABOUR AND INDUSTRY My Dear Minister I have the honour of presenting to you the following report upon the operation of the Commission under the Industrial Arbitration Act 1979 as it continued its operation under the Industrial Arbitration Act 1912-1979. In accord with the provisions of section 16 (2) (b) and (c) of the Act I have consulted with His Honour the President before making the report to you. The report, of necessity, relates to business conducted between July 1979 and 1 st March 1980 pursuant to the provisions of the Act of 1912-1979 and between 1st March and 30th June 1980 pursuant to the provisions of the 1979 Act. The practice of previous years of reporting upon business up to 30th June but offering comment upon any matter relevant to the time of writing is retained in this report. Matters dealt with by the Industrial Appeal Court and by the Industrial Magistrate and matters generally which are considered to be of importance and which arise from the provisions of the Act are all subject of reference within the report. 2 WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE. [28 January 1981. During the year under review, the appointment of the Honourable Mr. Justice Wick ham as President of the Court was terminated as from February 29, 1980, and the Court was reconstituted by the appointment of the Honourable Mr. Justice Wallace to be the Presiding Judge and the Honourable Mr. Justice Brinsden and the Honourable Mr. Justice Smith to be the other members, to take effect from March 1, 1980. The repeal of the former Industrial Arbitration Act, 1912, and the enactment of the new Industrial Arbitration Act, 1979, which came into force on March 1, 1980, resulted in virtually identical, though not exactly identical, jurisdiction of the Court in relation to the rules of a registered union, being vested in the President of the Industrial Commission. As a result, one matter was remitted from the Court back to the President of the Commission for hearing. Judgment was given during the year on two matters which were heard on June 7 and June 8, 1979, but in respect of which decisions were pending at the time of the last annual report. The following matters were dealt with during the year:— Appeals from decisions of the Commission in Court Session 5 Allowed 1 Dismissed 4 Appeals from dec sions of Industrial Magistrates Allowed Dismissed ... Appeals from dec sions of the Commission Dismissed ... Withdrawn Application to disallow union rule Remitted to President of Commission for want of jurisdiction SUMMARY Number of matters filed for hearing Plus matters outstanding from previous year Matter remitted to President for want of jurisdiction. .. Withdrawn Total number of matters determined THE WESTERN AUgTRAUAffi iM DUST RIAL COMMiSSlOM On 21st December 1979 the assent to the Industrial Arbitration Act 1979 was given and by proclamation duly made the Act came into operation on the 1st day of March 1980. Since that day many procedures different from those required by the previous Act have been followed and in this report reference is made to the proceedings taken under each of the different statutory directives. 28 January 1981.] WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE. 3 Section 8 of the Act prescribes the Constitution of the Commission and introduces to the Commission the office of President and I record with you that the first incumbent of the office was His Honour Mr. Phillip L. Sharp Q.C. who entered it on 1st March 1980 but whose term was cut short by the extreme tragedy of his sudden death on 6th June 1980. The Commission and indeed the State has been fortunate in having the late Phillip Sharp as the inaugural President of the Industrial Commission for it is apparent that he, though his term of office was short, established the office at a level of acceptance and respect second to none in the State. Since 1st July 1980 the office of President has been filled by His Honour Gresley D. Clarkson Q.C. who, though previously retired from the judiciary, undertook to serve the State on an interim basis pending the permanent appoint- ment of a President to the Commission. I record with you the Commission's most sincere gratitude to His Honour for his acceptance of the office and for the assistance and guidance he has so readily afforded. It is with a sense of profound regret that I record in this report the recent death of Mr. Stephen Fred Schnaars the first appointed Chief Commissioner of the Western Australian Industrial Commission. He was a gentleman of great capacity and highly respected as a worthy servant of this State. During the period reviewed by this report many cases of significance were heard and determined by the Commission variously constituted and I see it desirable that I refer, in particular, to three of those cases. The first matter to which I make special reference is the Commission in Court Session Decision made on 21st January 1980 by which "Maternity Leave" was granted in several awards of the Commission. At the time the decision was delivered I observed, inter alia, that there had been "massive acceptance of the principle by governments and by other arbitral authorities" and further that:— "It is to be expected that the orders which will flow from the findings of the Commission in Court Session will establish a 'standard' of the Com- mission in respect of maternity leave ..." The second matter relates to the Commission dealing with questions affecting "District Allowances" payable in the various regions of the State. Following a long and intensively investigated case in respect of "District Allowance" the Commission in Court Session by judgment delivered on 30th May, 1980 introduced a new and logical assessment of allowances to be granted to workers and in its "Summary of Conclusion" said, inter alia:— "The existing practice of dividing the State into areas for the purpose of allocating compensating allowances for location disadvantages is no longer considered to be appropriate as it does not reflect marked differences in relevant disadvantages between 'towns' in the same area. "Accordingly the Commission considers that compensatory allowances for location disadvantages should be allocated to individual towns." The allowances prescribed have been rationalised and special provisions are made in respect of single and married wage earners, for cases when a man and his wife both work for the same employer, and for the case when housing or board and lodging is provided as a term of employment, and automatic variation of the prices component of the allowances in accord with change in the Consumer Price Index for Perth is included in the Commission order. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE. [28 January 1981. The third matter I believe warrants my special record with you is that related to hours of work in the State Energy Commission. Again the matter was one dealt with by the Commission in Court Session and practical steps have been taken by the Commission in the task of resolving the dispute then currently before it. In its reason for decision delivered on 24th July, 1980 the Commission in Court Session said:— "We have decided, therefore, to announce, subject to what follows, approval in principle to the introduction of a 37J hour week or some variant of it in this industry. In order to inform ourselves more accurately on the likely costs and effects of the introduction of those reduced hours we have decided to exercise the power of the Commission under section 27 (1) (i) of the Industrial Arbitration Act and refer to Dr. N. F. Dufty, Dean of Social Sciences at the Western Australian Institute of Technology, for investigation and report, the extent to which the cost of introducing a 371 hour week may be reduced by means of any concessions which the unions are willing and able to make, or which this Commission might reasonably order as a condition of the introduction of such reduced hours." 1 concur in the comment of the Commission in Court Session when it said:— "We record our appreciation of the co-operation of the Institute of Technology in enabling Dr. Dufty to undertake this task for the Commission." There has been no diminution in the instances of the Commission visiting and holding formal proceedings in many regions of the Slate embracing areas from Kununurra and Wyndham in the north to Albany and Esperancc in the south and east to Kalgoorlie and the Eastern Goldlields. The Commission has conducted business involving persons and organisations as different in stature as a fifteen year old apprentice and a multimillion dollar multinational corporation but with equal patience and with equal diligence to the maintenance of justice to all concerned. Presently with the aid of specialists supplied by the Public Service Board the Commission is investigating the proposal that the awards and other documents recorded in the Commission be processed by means of a "word processing system". It is intended that a modern system will afford the Commission and the community it serves immediate access to efficient current information in these times of frequent change. The Industrial Gazette is now published once in each calendar month and the practice of maintaining the record of the "cumulative contents" and "cumulative index" is now firmly established and of great assistance to all persons having recourse to the Gazette.