C2004/3586, Transcript of Proceedings [2004] AIRCTrans 1949 (27 May 2004)

AUSCRIPT PTY LTD
ABN 76 082 664 220

Level 4, 179 Queen St MELBOURNE Vic 3000
(GPO Box 1114 MELBOURNE Vic 3001)
Tel:[phone] Fax:[phone]

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS


O/N 7125

AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL

RELATIONS COMMISSION

COMMISSIONER MANSFIELD

C2004/3586

COMMUNICATIONS, ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONIC,
ENERGY, INFORMATION, POSTAL, PLUMBING
AND ALLIED SERVICES UNION OF AUSTRALIA

and

TXU ELECTRICITY LIMITED

Notification pursuant to section 99 of the Act
of a dispute re alleged transfer of employees
from the Morwell to the Traralgon Depot

MELBOURNE

1.03 PM, FRIDAY, 14 MAY 2004

PN1

MR P. MOONEY: I appear on behalf of the CEPU with MR E. STEIN and MR D. WARNER, who are delegates from the depot and also a number of occupational health and safety reps from the depot as well.

PN2

MR I. DIXON: I seek leave to appear with MR P. KAZMIEROWSKI, construction manager for t Squared and MS L. TERESINSKI, the HR consultant to the company.

PN3

THE COMMISSIONER: Is there any objection to Mr Dixon's appearance.

PN4

MR MOONEY: Yes, we would oppose Mr Dixon.

PN5

THE COMMISSIONER: Good, you are - - -

PN6

MR DIXON: I was going to offer, Commissioner, if Mr Mooney objects to my appearance to change my tie, but I don't know whether that was really what he had in mind.

PN7

THE COMMISSIONER: As you know, Mr Dixon, Friday is bow tie days here.

PN8

MR DIXON: Yes, that is what prompted the - - -

PN9

THE COMMISSIONER: With some of us.

PN10

MR DIXON: Commissioner, I have to say we would like to know why we are here.

PN11

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes. Well, Mr Dixon, before you go through that there is an objection to your appearance; what I propose to do is to reserve my position on the objection to get into the substance of the matter. I must say, Mr Mooney, that Mr Dixon is a regular person in appearing here. I haven't found his presence to be unhelpful in many cases and so at this stage I just reserve my decision on your objection on his right to appear and we should get into the substance of the matter instead. Okay. Good.

PN12

MR MOONEY: Commissioner, as long as it is quite clear that we do oppose his appearance.

PN13

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN14

MR MOONEY: It is only a dispute notification and he does have to show reasons why he needs to intervene and we would like to see him do those things. We like to see that people jump through your hoops to make sure.

PN15

THE COMMISSIONER: Well, I am quite sure he can, Mr Mooney. He can spend - we could spend 10 minutes with Mr Dixon explaining why he should be given leave to appear, but I think we have got better things to do with our time at this moment.

PN16

MR MOONEY: I accept your reserving your position on that.

PN17

THE COMMISSIONER: Okay.

PN18

MR MOONEY: Can I lead off then, Commissioner?

PN19

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes, please.

PN20

MR MOONEY: The dispute arises out of the movement of our members and other employees from the current Morwell depot, which has been a temporary depot, back to the Traralgon depot, which unfortunately had a fire the year before last so people had to take up a temporary residence down on that - in the Morwell depot that they are currently in.

PN21

THE COMMISSIONER: Now, I take it, Mr Mooney, what you are saying is that there was a disruption to the depot at Traralgon?

PN22

MR MOONEY: Yes.

PN23

THE COMMISSIONER: A fire.

PN24

MR MOONEY: Yes.

PN25

THE COMMISSIONER: Which destroyed the depot or largely did?

PN26

MR MOONEY: That is correct.

PN27

THE COMMISSIONER: Individuals moved then from Traralgon to Morwell.

PN28

MR MOONEY: To Morwell.

PN29

THE COMMISSIONER: And the depot at Traralgon has now been restored?

PN30

MR MOONEY: That is - well, that is - - -

PN31

THE COMMISSIONER: That is an issue.

PN32

MR MOONEY: That is the issue, that is why we are here.

PN33

THE COMMISSIONER: But the company's view is that it is now suitable for people to take up their duties there again.

PN34

MR MOONEY: Well, that is where the dispute lies, Commissioner.

PN35

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN36

MR MOONEY: Through the process of before they moved into the Traralgon depot they were in an original old SEC depot that used to be in Lydiard Road, Traralgon. The Texas Utilities at the time decided to sell off a lot of their properties and move people into smaller type depots and everything like that and TXU sold the Lydiard Road depot and people were moved from the Lydiard Road up into this depot. When they moved up to this new depot in Traralgon they raised a number of issues at that time with TXU in relation to that depot. A lot of those issues have not been addressed since they have been in that depot.

PN37

Then the fire occurred where they moved to the Morwell depot and the guys made it quite clear some time ago - as late of the 11th of the 6th '03 - that there was a number of issues that they wanted addressed prior to them moving back to the Traralgon Depot.

PN38

THE COMMISSIONER: Sorry, did you say 11 June '03?

PN39

MR MOONEY: '03.

PN40

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN41

MR MOONEY: Last year.

PN42

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes, last year.

PN43

MR MOONEY: Yes.

PN44

THE COMMISSIONER: Expressed concern about moving back.

PN45

MR MOONEY: Back. When they moved back they wanted a number of issues addressed before they moved back.

PN46

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes. And what were they?

PN47

MR MOONEY: The first one was a brew room to facilitate for all people who work in the - in that depot and there are some 70 employees.

PN48

THE COMMISSIONER: Is that a sort of a coffee room/lunch room we are talking about?

PN49

MR MOONEY: Yes, yes, brew room, as such we call them - they are called brew rooms.

PN50

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN51

MR MOONEY: They wanted to make sure that they had airconditioning and heating for that brew room because the one at the time before the fire never had such accommodation.

PN52

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN53

MR MOONEY: They wanted some - they wanted a computer that was - had access to computers so they could do onto their Intranet and everything like that so they could pick up all their requirements.

PN54

THE COMMISSIONER: Access to computers, yes.

PN55

MR MOONEY: Yes. They required a locker/changeroom because at the Traralgon depot their change facilities were lockers in the workshop lined up where people had to change their clothes in a walkway where people were walking past and it wasn't in an actual change facility. They wanted a car park so they could park their cars off the street.

PN56

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN57

MR MOONEY: They needed some sort of separation from where the forklift ran through the workshop into the store area to ensure that people couldn't be injured and they wanted an undercover bike rack outside so employees could store their bikes in an undercover bike rack. Since then nothing really seems to have been addressed, Commissioner. There are still a number of issues outstanding. The guys have since started a process of moving back across and it has come to a bit of a head as of this morning and yesterday where the guys are now refusing to move until a number of issues are addressed.

PN58

There has been a walk through the new - the repaired depot and there is some more items now that attach to it that need to be addressed and I won't go to those details so much here now, but we might address those maybe in a conference or something like that.

PN59

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN60

MR MOONEY: We have also issued - the occupational health and safety rep has also issued a prohibition notice to the company asking that these things have to be done as soon as possible. They have got seven days to address them and what we would be seeking from you, Commissioner, today is that a direction to the company that people from the Morwell depot are not to be moved until such time as the issues that we have been raising have been addressed, and a process has been put in place to ensure that all issues are finalised to a conclusion that satisfies with the employees and also under the Occ Health and Safety Act and any codes of practice to that.

PN61

THE COMMISSIONER: So is your view, Mr Mooney, that the issues you have raised such as the brew rooms and the airconditioning and heating and so forth, make the Traralgon facility either unsafe or unsuitable - - -

PN62

MR MOONEY: Unsuitable.

PN63

THE COMMISSIONER: - - - for the personnel to move across from Morwell.

PN64

MR MOONEY: Yes.

PN65

THE COMMISSIONER: You mentioned that these matters have been raised in correspondence in June of last year.

PN66

MR MOONEY: That is correct.

PN67

THE COMMISSIONER: What has happened since then? Has there been a series of meetings and discussions and other things about these issues?

PN68

MR MOONEY: There has been about a dozen meetings I have been informed.

PN69

THE COMMISSIONER: There have been a number of meetings.

PN70

MR MOONEY: A number of meetings.

PN71

THE COMMISSIONER: Okay. But what you are saying is that those meetings haven't addressed these issues satisfactorily?

PN72

MR MOONEY: No, not satisfactorily, no.

PN73

THE COMMISSIONER: Where do the people who are going back to Traralgon live - do they live in Morwell or do they live in Traralgon or where do they live?

PN74

MR MOONEY: They are scattered. They are scattered between Moe, Morwell, Traralgon and outlying regions of the area.

PN75

THE COMMISSIONER: So you are saying to me this is not a matter of people preferring to work in Morwell because it is closer to home or because it is more comfortable or things of that nature?

PN76

MR MOONEY: No, no, Commissioner, I make it quite clear is that it has always been the belief of the guys in the depot that they would be eventually moving back to Traralgon. They accepted that; they knew the Morwell premises was on a temporary basis and all they are saying now is that if we are going back to the Traralgon depot we want to make sure we are going to be comfortable while we are in that depot and all our safety concerns and where we are going to be in the future is going to be - you know, it is going to be there for a long time - they are met prior to us moving because the first occasion when they moved from the Lydiard Road depot, as I mentioned earlier, a similar thing, they moved on good faith and nothing was done.

PN77

THE COMMISSIONER: Now, how many of your members/TXU employees will work in the Traralgon depot.

PN78

MR MOONEY: 70.

PN79

THE COMMISSIONER: 70.

PN80

MR MOONEY: 70 employees.

PN81

THE COMMISSIONER: And are they there on an 8 to 5 basis during the day or do they report to the depot and then - - -

PN82

MR MOONEY: They report to the depot in the morning - - -

PN83

THE COMMISSIONER: - - - go out to do other things.

PN84

MR MOONEY: They report to the depot in the morning, they leave the depot and go out and do their work. Depending - - -

PN85

THE COMMISSIONER: Do they come back for lunch?

PN86

MR MOONEY: They may, depending on weather conditions or other arrangements or the job may be completed or they might have things to do in the workshop; all those types of issues that go on on a day to day basis.

PN87

THE COMMISSIONER: So how many people would be in the work - in the depot typically at say 11 o'clock in the morning.

PN88

MR MOONEY: 11 o'clock, I would probably say half because you have got - - -

PN89

THE COMMISSIONER: So 30-odd people would still be in the depot?

PN90

MR MOONEY: Yes, because we have got - what have we got - about 38, 33 members in there at this stage and then there is another group who work in the front office area who are office people.

PN91

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN92

MR MOONEY: Who are actually bound in that area and they would make up the rest which is, you know, roughly about 30 that - or a bit more than 30 at any one time.

PN93

THE COMMISSIONER: Who is finally - you mention there are some occ health and safety issues.

PN94

MR MOONEY: Yes.

PN95

THE COMMISSIONER: Can you take me to what they might be? I don't want a detailed explanation necessarily, Mr Mooney, but just an outline of the things. Does it go to heating and cooling, or does it go to asbestos in the building or something less serious?

PN96

MR MOONEY: It is the size of the brew room.

PN97

THE COMMISSIONER: The size of the brew room.

PN98

MR MOONEY: About the size of the brew room. There is seating arrangements in that brew room. You are required to have a certain space to meet it - boiling water. We don't think the question is adequate and we have got some photos to show you too, Commissioner.

PN99

THE COMMISSIONER: So they are the sorts of issues, Mr Mooney?

PN100

MR MOONEY: Yes, and like - also like toilets; we don't think there are enough toilets, closets, urinal, showers.

PN101

THE COMMISSIONER: Are there showers in the depot or are there an inadequate number of showers?

PN102

MR MOONEY: Inadequate number of showers; there is only one.

PN103

THE COMMISSIONER: All right. Well, perhaps that will be sufficient for the moment.

PN104

MR MOONEY: Yes, we will leave it there.

PN105

THE COMMISSIONER: And we will turn to Mr Dixon. Mr Dixon, you asked the question before what is the employer doing here? The difficulty has been outlined by Mr Mooney. Now, I just should say before Mr Dixon starts, when we were trying to arrange this hearing for today, because it originally was set down for next Thursday - - -

PN106

MR MOONEY: I will thank you for that, Commissioner, too. Thank you.

PN107

THE COMMISSIONER: Good. No, that is fine. I did - I was informed by the representatives of the company I spoke to - and I think it was Mr Dixon particularly - he was talking to other people - and he was saying to me that there is a proposal to actually physically transfer all of the equipment from the Morwell site to the Traralgon site over this weekend and it is all pretty much locked down. But anyhow - - -

PN108

MR DIXON: That is correct. The lease expires Friday week.

PN109

THE COMMISSIONER: Good.

PN110

MR DIXON: Or Saturday. Commissioner, the removalists - or some equipment started yesterday or today and the removalists are in on the weekend. These things are - have been coming for some time. Everyone has been fairly well aware of the change. As Mr Mooney said there have been a number of meetings about that. The date is not a surprise and I think formal notice was about five or six weeks ago as to when it would all take place and we received notification given to us by Mr Mooney who seems to have become an agent of the Commission. We received notice of this dispute yesterday.

PN111

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN112

MR DIXON: And he is perhaps - he a little late in the day, but we don't go any further than saying we have been given late notice and I object to the fact we haven't got notice in the post or anything. But the parties have - when the old building - the move at Lydiard Street to Stratton Street took place there were a number of complaints at the time in the building, which is probably not to be unexpected. In fact, WorkCover were involved back in November and I don't go into any detail of this, but just to - they came - they actually had two inspections and some of the complaints which the first one raised - the second report says that they have been dealt with and it does go on to say that there might be follow-up meetings - or follow-up visits and I understand WorkCover didn't ever do it and the whole thing settled down.

PN113

THE COMMISSIONER: So you are saying, Mr Dixon, that WorkCover has had a look at the new premises?

PN114

MR DIXON: No, this is back in November 2000.

PN115

THE COMMISSIONER: 2000, yes.

PN116

MR DIXON: When they moved I think to the Stratton Place address.

PN117

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN118

MR DIXON: So there were some complaints then and Mr Mooney adverted to there being some problems raised with the old premises which hadn't been addressed initially. Well, they were, we say, and WorkCover involved and they were addressed. Now - - -

PN119

THE COMMISSIONER: And then that premises burnt down?

PN120

MR DIXON: Then the premises were going along and the premises burnt down and subsequently, as Mr Mooney said, there have been some issues raised from time to time which he listed for you about the new premises now. And we say this is probably part and parcel of moving into new premises and we say they have been addressed and as Mr Mooney quite fairly outlined there have been a number of meetings and, in fact, he also mentioned in passing there has been a walk through of the new premises. So this is not a surprise move. This is not a surprise to go to a new building.

PN121

There has been consultation with the crew and the personnel involved to get their feedback. It wouldn't surprise you if I say to you that a consultant was asked to build it properly, and it was, and the company says that we have rebuilt the premises correctly and we have taken into account - for example, one of the things raised was the enclosed changing - locker/changing room and that has been done. So there has been consultation. There has been regular meetings with the people involved, with Mr Gareth Downes, who is the area manager and others, with the delegates and with the representatives.

PN122

The brew room is there. Whether or not it sits there isolated and emptied as a coffee room and can't be used by management from time to time as a meeting, seems to me a little bit unfair.

PN123

THE COMMISSIONER: When you say there is a brew room there, Mr Dixon, what - - -

PN124

MR DIXON: Well, there is a brew - there is boiling water supplied. There will be - - -

PN125

THE COMMISSIONER: Is it a room as big as this?

PN126

MR DIXON: Commissioner, I did foreshadow there might have to be inspections down to the premises and that might have to be the case, but can I just take you to it. There is a brew room.

PN127

THE COMMISSIONER: I hope not, Mr Dixon.

PN128

MR DIXON: Perhaps we can debate that later in conference. But can I take you to point 2, the airconditioning and heating in that brew room, that has been dealt with - that has been installed. These things are not outstanding, all of these. The working computer with Intranet access in that brew room to assist in logging onto policies and taking on work, that has been installed. The locker/change room, as we said, it is enclosed - it has been put in.

PN129

THE COMMISSIONER: So a person who needs to change has a separate room in which - - -

PN130

MR DIXON: He is not standing in the walkways.

PN131

THE COMMISSIONER: - - - normally his locker will be located?

PN132

MR DIXON: Not standing in the walkways.

PN133

THE COMMISSIONER: And you are not exposed to people walking around the place?

PN134

MR DIXON: No.

PN135

THE COMMISSIONER: And so you can get changed in this locker/change room?

PN136

MR DIXON: Yes, you can. And, Commissioner, there are other things which - let me just go to the next one. Well, a separate private car park; Commissioner, just physically not possible. Car parking has been at that premises before and - there is car parking available. What there is, if you need to leave your car there overnight because you are on availability and you are taking out the company's vehicle, there is a safe lock-up. So there is not everything people want in this world. The undercover bike rack, for example, the company's view is well, we are not sure whether - how many people will be using their bikes and when we move back in and if there is a demand for it the company will look at it.

PN137

And can I say just at the outset one of the reasons I did raise why are we here; much of this material doesn't come within what would normally be an industrial dispute. Much of this material comes about settling into new premises where if we wished to go to an industrial dispute - if you want to go to the enterprise agreement, would be handled one would think in the local area first between those people directly involved.

PN138

THE COMMISSIONER: But on the face of it, Mr Dixon, it has been handled to an extent by a number of meetings that have taken place, but the final result still has fallen short of what the employees believe is a reasonable standard.

PN139

MR DIXON: Well, that is - well, that is true and that may have to be tested as to what is a reasonable standard. But as I have indicated to you a number of issues have been addressed. As I have indicated a number of meetings are still taking place.

PN140

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN141

MR DIXON: Walk through audits have been taking place. There are some things we just can't do until we move the plant and equipment across and one of them, for example, is this listed as separate forklift working area. You can't - until we put the plant and equipment in in the new premises and see where it goes we can't paint the lines around them to say this is going to be a safe designated walkway. So some of the material will require us to move in and settle the building down, just like happened before, and we are happy to do that process. The area - I mean we have met constantly and we will continue to meet. I am just not sure why we are here. One would expect people would move into the new premises and take care of their health with the forklifts going past until that work could be undertaken as soon as possible.

PN142

THE COMMISSIONER: I think the obvious reason why we are here, Mr Dixon, is that the discussions that have taken place have resulted in an outcome thus far which falls short of what the employees believe is adequate and so obviously what Mr Mooney is hoping is that this Commission will somehow prevail on the company to not require the employees to move as of next Monday. That is the objective, Mr Mooney, I take it?

PN143

MR MOONEY: That is correct, yes. That is correct.

PN144

MR DIXON: Well, Commissioner, let us go to this because - let us talk about things reasonably before we get down to whether there is any power to do that and whether it can possibly be done at this late stage.

PN145

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes, agreed.

PN146

MR DIXON: There are seven matters here of which we say there are probably two that can't be - or two that shouldn't happen.

PN147

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN148

MR DIXON: Because we can't know. There are five which have otherwise been - or four which have otherwise been dealt with and the fifth, we think, has been satisfactorily dealt with. There has been movement. Now, what we have - we say that there should be movement across to a safe working area, because it is safe, but now what we have is people coming up with pin notices with a whole lot of other things which go to whether the seats are right around the table. Fine, we will talk about those.

PN149

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN150

MR DIXON: We are not saying stop now, move across; we will continue to meet and talk. There is no question; the company will do so.

PN151

THE COMMISSIONER: What is the company view, Mr Dixon, on the occ health and safety arguments that have been put forward? Is it of the view that those are not - I will use the word "genuine" or reasonable?

PN152

MR DIXON: I haven't gone to that, Commissioner.

PN153

THE COMMISSIONER: No.

PN154

MR DIXON: I haven't gone to whether this is a building industry enquiry, which I told Mr Mooney I would raise and whether they are using occupational health and safety like the building and construction industry has been going through and they are used as part of industrial campaign. I haven't gone to that.

PN155

MR MOONEY: Commissioner, to be fair I made it clear from the outset that we weren't opposed to moving back to the Traralgon depot and we are not using health and safety as an industrial tool. We have put this here today because we are concerned that our members are very upset about this issue which then could turn into an industrial dispute next week where they may decide to take some sort of - to the extent of unlawful industrial action at the moment over this issue.

PN156

THE COMMISSIONER: Sure.

PN157

MR MOONEY: And we are trying to prevent that from happening.

PN158

THE COMMISSIONER: Sure.

PN159

MR MOONEY: And we have tried to put a process clearly in place in asking you to issue a direction to the company that this does not take place until such time as we address the issues. I go to the issue of - - -

PN160

THE COMMISSIONER: No, Mr Mooney, that is fine. Just let Mr Dixon complete his. Mr Dixon, I just raised the occupational health and safety issue to get a quick response from you - - -

PN161

MR DIXON: The quick response is - - -

PN162

THE COMMISSIONER: - - - as to whether you believe there was any substance in the occupational health and safety issues and you might say there may be some; you might say there is none or you might say, yes, we are looking at it very seriously.

PN163

MR DIXON: Commissioner, we are looking at it very seriously. We can't tell.

PN164

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN165

MR DIXON: We will go through them

PN166

THE COMMISSIONER: Okay, good.

PN167

MR DIXON: This was only done today, this pin notice.

PN168

THE COMMISSIONER: Good, yes.

PN169

MR DIXON: Yesterday. We will go through each of them, this process, this listing, 35 items. Boiling water - boiling water will be on the site. What we - we will go through that. But this is not a problem for this Commission, nor should there be industrial action taken for it. The process of meeting at that level is not only natural common sense, but also as set out in the EBA, which everyone signed for. And if there is unauthorised industrial action then it is a choice by the employees to do that, but we have asked them - we have had six weeks' notice to do it; it has come up now the lease runs out. The move will have to be on unfortunately and everyone will have to take care during the first couple of days. But we will expect people to turn up to work and discuss these - discuss these in a proper process.

PN170

THE COMMISSIONER: So the company is of the view, Mr Dixon, that its employees have been instructed as of Monday they are to report to the Traralgon depot?

PN171

MR DIXON: Yes, they will and we think that is reasonably safe and reasonably suitable and if there are any complaints please let us know and we will deal with them in the ordinary process.

PN172

THE COMMISSIONER: Good. Mr Mooney, do you have anything to go on the record by way of reply, or alternatively we might go off the record and into conference.

PN173

MR MOONEY: Just a couple of things, Commissioner, Mr Dixon raised about the locker room. We believe the locker room is nowhere big enough to cater for 70 employees, not even just our membership. Car parking - if you go back to the old SEC policies it is a requirement that they have off the street parking as part of the policy. This is a power company that has inherited from the SEC so its policy must go. It would be the only depot I would say in the whole of TXU that doesn't have off-street parking for their employees.

PN174

THE COMMISSIONER: So what happens at the moment?

PN175

MR MOONEY: They used to - - -

PN176

THE COMMISSIONER: What will happen at Traralgon, Mr Mooney?

PN177

MR MOONEY: They will be parked - - -

PN178

THE COMMISSIONER: The employees will come to the premises and park on the street.

PN179

MR MOONEY: They will have to have - park on the street and take the risk of their cars on the street in an industrial area - it is an industrial area, so you have got trucks, all those type of things running in and out of that area which then could cause damage. The old car - the old depot had some car parking for the - some of the employees, as in it was the first - best in, best dressed got a car park. Forklift - Mr Dixon raised the issue about forklift; they have already marked the lines on the concrete at the depot in relation to the forklift. They go straight across access ways for vehicles for the forklifts.

PN180

Now, Mr Dixon says he has done this in - they are saying - trying to say they have done this in consultation with the employees; the employees has continually been raising the issue since they have got the notice that they were moving some six weeks ago and they are quite categorically clear that they have not been addressed and that is why we are here now.

PN181

THE COMMISSIONER: Mr Mooney, would you prefer at this stage to go into conference?

PN182

MR MOONEY: I am quite willing to go into conference.

PN183

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN184

MR MOONEY: But we still seek from you a direction that no person is directed to take their employment up at the Traralgon depot until such time - - -

PN185

THE COMMISSIONER: I hear what you say in that regard, Mr Mooney. One of the difficulties that already has been alluded to by Mr Dixon is on what basis that that is sought; is it on the basis of some right which is established in either your award or the enterprise agreement and - - -

PN186

MR MOONEY: I would go to - I would go to - - -

PN187

THE COMMISSIONER: - - - and when it comes to the crunch does the Commission have the authority to issue a direction to the employer along the lines that you are seeking?

PN188

MR MOONEY: We would say that the dispute settlement procedure under the TXU enterprise agreement is current, it hasn't been dissolved in any way, shape or form even though we might be in enterprise bargaining at the moment, that you are well aware of. It is quite clear that we are in a dispute. The dispute has got to you and it says quite clearly in that enterprise agreement that the status quo shall remain until such time as the dispute is resolved and that is where our priority comes from.

PN189

THE COMMISSIONER: All right. We will go off the record.

NO FURTHER PROCEEDINGS RECORDED