AG2001/3070, Transcript of Proceedings [2001] AIRCTrans 1475 (11 July 2001)

AUSCRIPT PTY LTD
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TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS


O/N 8020

AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL

RELATIONS COMMISSION

SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT KAUFMAN

AG2001/3070

APPLICATION FOR CERTIFICATION OF
AGREEMENT

Application by Pivot Ltd pursuant
to section 170LJ of the Act for certification
of the Pivot Ltd (Geelong MDSC) Customer
Service Enterprise Agreement (2001)

MELBOURNE

11.00 AM, WEDNESDAY, 20 JUNE 2001

PN1

MR B. CHARLES: I seek leave to appear on behalf of Pivot Ltd.

PN2

MR C. WINTER: I appear on behalf of the Australian Workers Union.

PN3

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: So, I take it you don't oppose - - -

PN4

MR WINTER: No, I don't oppose.

PN5

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes, thank you. Leave is granted, Mr Charles.

PN6

MR CHARLES: If your Honour pleases. This is an application for certification of the Pivot Ltd (Geelong MDSC) Customer Service Enterprise Agreement 2001. This is an agreement between the company and the Australian Workers Union, and applies, your Honour, to the safety centre laboratory and the blending and despatch of fertiliser products, a department carried on in the customer service department of Pivot's North Shore operations.

PN7

The application, your Honour, is made under Division 2 of the Workplace Relations Act, and I submit that the requirements of sections 170LJ and 170LT have been met. Now, the basis for this submission, your Honour, is the information contained in the statutory declarations that were filed with the application. But I might also add, your Honour, that the agreement does pass the 'No Disadvantage Test'. It is to be read in conjunction, and does not actually displace the relevant award.

PN8

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: And it provides for a 4.5 per cent wage increase in it.

PN9

MR CHARLES: Yes, that is correct, your Honour. And there is also an improved severance package, if I can put it that way, that is incorporated into the agreement, by incorporation of the Pivot Limited Redundancy Agreement, which is an unregistered agreement, your Honour. The wage rate that you mentioned also, your Honour, actually builds on two previous wage increases under earlier certified agreements. It is not just the 4.25 per cent on top of the base rate of pay that is in the relevant award.

PN10

Your Honour, unless there are any particular matters that you want to ask of me, I submit that the agreement should be certified.

PN11

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes, thank you.

PN12

MR CHARLES: If your Honour pleases.

PN13

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I have no questions of you. I have read the statutory declarations and had a look at the proposed agreement. Mr Winter.

PN14

MR WINTER: Thank you, your Honour. I have nothing further to add. I would rely on the statutory declaration that was signed by the organiser who negotiated the agreement, Mr Penn, as is the policy of the AWU, that the statutory declaration has to be signed off by an official who was party to the negotiations. I have spoken to Mr Penn this morning. As my colleague has said, this is the third certified agreement that has covered these employees.

PN15

And clearly the agreement does pass the 'No Disadvantage Test'. I would again rely on the statutory declaration and seek certification from today's date.

PN16

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr Charles, Mr Winter. Yes, very well. This is an application pursuant to Part 6B, Division 2, Section 170LJ of the Workplace Relations Act 1996, to certify an agreement to be known as the Pivot Ltd (Geelong MDSC) Customer Service Enterprise Agreement (2001). Having heard Mr Charles, on behalf of the company, and Mr Winter, on behalf of the AWU, and having read the statutory declarations filed by Ken Digby, on behalf of the company, Pivot, and Gaven Penn, an organiser on behalf of the AWU, I am satisfied that the agreement filed, relates to a constitutional corporation, mainly Pivot Ltd. Its ACN is 004 080 264.

PN17

I am also satisfied that the AWU has at least one member employed, in a part of the single business to which the agreement relates, and is entitled to represent the industrial interests of the member. I am also satisfied that the agreement passes the No Disadvantage Test; that it was made in accordance with section 170LJ of the Act, and that a valid majority of persons employed at the time, whose employment would be subject to it, generally approved of it; that the explanation of its terms was appropriate; that it includes procedures for preventing and settling disputes between the employer and the employees whose employment will be subject to the agreement, and that it specifies a date as a nominal expiry date, which is not more than three years after the date on which the agreement will come into operation. I am also satisfied that there are no reasons set out in section 170LU, why I should refuse to certify the agreement. Accordingly the agreement will come into operation on 20 June 2001, to operate in accordance with its terms from 1 April 2001 and I will so certify it.

PN18

I will reduce my reasons to writing and provide those to the parties as soon as is practicable. Adjourn the Commission, please.

ADJOURNED INDEFINITELY [11.06am]