C2006/3805, Transcript of Proceedings [2007] AIRCTrans 25 (22 January 2007)

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

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Workplace Relations Act 1996 16377-1

COMMISSIONER EAMES

C2006/3805

VISY BOARD PTY LTD
AND
AUTOMOTIVE, FOOD, METALS, ENGINEERING, PRINTING AND KINDRED INDUSTRIES UNION
s.170LW -prereform Act - Appl’n for settlement of dispute (certified agreement)
(C2006/3805)

MELBOURNE

2.09PM, TUESDAY, 09 JANUARY 2007

Continued from 28/11/2006

Adjourned sine die

PN1

MS R DE PAZ: I appear for the AMWU and with me are our delegates,
MR W MASLEN and also MR S ALIU.

PN2

MR A DOUGLAS: I seek leave to appear and with me is MR W RUSSELL, the Operations Manager of Visy Board Dandenong and MR T BURRASTON, the National Industrial Relations Manager.

PN3

THE COMMISSIONER: Good thank you, yes. And leave is granted,
Mr Douglass. My associate informs me there's been some discussions between the parties in relation to this matter and that the intent of the parties was to put some statements on the record, so I'm happy to take those. Mr Douglas.

PN4

MR DOUGLAS: Commissioner, as a matter of courtesy I will read them.
Ms De Paz will actually confirm the first one because that is actually a statement on the record on behalf of the union.

PN5

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN6

MR DOUGLAS: The only reason I'm reading is my writing is so poor.

PN7

THE COMMISSIONER: You're letting me off the hook, are you, Mr Douglas? Good on you.

PN8

MR DOUGLAS: And the second one Mr Russell will confirm at the end of it because he's the operations manager at the site.

PN9

THE COMMISSIONER: Sure.

PN10

MR DOUGLAS: These undertakings are strictly to the Dandenong site only because it's a national agreement so it's limited to these sites.

PN11

THE COMMISSIONER: All right.

PN12

MR DOUGLAS: The first one and this is statement 1 on behalf of the AMWU is as follows, the AMWU, its officials, delegates and members of the Visy Board Dandenong site make no claim now or in the future in respect of the employees who were previously employed by Visy Specialties at the little Dandenong site who subsequently were transferred to the Visy Board Dandenong site in respect of the subject matter set out in the application surrounding the transfer of Mr Nazmi Baferi.

PN13

Now, Nazmi Baferi is spelt N-a-z-m-i, Baferi, B-a-f-e-r-i. Specifically the AMWU, its officials, delegates and members of the Visy Board Dandenong site accept that such transfers of employment that did occur were governed by appendix 2 and "job transfers" of the current EBA. And that's the first statement on the record.

PN14

MS DE PAZ: I confirm those statements, Commissioner.

PN15

THE COMMISSIONER: Good. Thanks, Ms De Paz.

PN16

MR DOUGLAS: The second statement made on behalf of Visy Board Dandenong is as follows, on the basis that the AMWU, its officials, delegates and members at the Visy Board Dandenong site withdraw all claims for permanent employment by Raim Ajrulovski, spelt R-a-i-m and Ajrulovski, A-j-r-u-l-o-v-s-k-i as described in the application and in consideration of the above statement put on the record by the AMWU Visy Board states for the record that it recognises now, effective from today, as a matter of custom and practice that any person engaged on higher duties for a period later than three months to fill a vacancy only will be granted the higher duties permanently whilst employed at Visy but subject to Visy Board's entitlement to this under disciplinary action or otherwise in accordance with the certified agreement as varied from time to time.

PN17

This acknowledgement is limited to the Visy Board site at Dandenong only. The custom and practice will remain custom and practice whilst permitted at law. By way of clarification, the parties accept that the custom and practice described above does not extend to cover situations where there is no employment vacancy such as filling in on another employee taking leave when another employee is unable to work in his or her position arising out of illness, injury or other impediment, or any other circumstances where the person receiving the higher duty is merely filling the role of another employee and that employee's position is not vacant.

PN18

As a matter of courtesy wherever possible Visy will advise the affected employee in receipt of the higher duties the purpose for which the employee is undertaking the higher duties. Commissioner, that's the undertaking. I will give you some context so it makes sense in case we should have to come back here.

PN19

THE COMMISSIONER: Sure.

PN20

MR DOUGLAS: There was some employees who were transferred when little Dandenong was closed and they were brought over and they were being paid at a higher rate and it was simply grandfathered out under the appendix. So they don't get an indexed rate even though they're doing a lower duty. That's the first issue.

PN21

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes, I follow that.

PN22

MR DOUGLAS: That's been accepted. The second issue related to a position where people three work on the machine, the operator had a knee injury and therefore couldn't climb up on top of the machine so he went round to the front of the machine and did the assistant operator's job. The assistant operator took over the operator's job which involved climbing up stairs. It was only done for the purpose of filling in during worker's compensation and therefore it wasn't a vacancy as such. The job hadn't gone. It was simply filling in until this other person's capacity to do the work was regained.

PN23

Commissioner, there's only one other thing that I would like to raise just as a matter of courtesy now. Visy Dandenong had some unlawful industrial action not long ago. Those issues are being discussed. There may be a reason why we have to come back to you in the next three to four weeks, maybe earlier or not, and hopefully it can be resolved. I'm just raising it now because I want you to understand there are still issues at the plant which need resolution and which the parties are working to overcome.

PN24

THE COMMISSIONER: That's fine, all right. No, that's fine. And that's the way you understand things as well, Ms De Paz?

PN25

MS DE PAZ: Yes, I do, Commissioner, but I'm not privy to the issues in regards to unlawful industrial action.

PN26

THE COMMISSIONER: Okay. Well look, to perhaps assist the parties, rather than either party having to make another application I'd be happy to ask for this matter to be re-listed if it was thought necessary in order to deal with any outstanding issues that might be there. In that way we might be able to facilitate a hearing at pretty short notice. My diary at the moment is looking relatively all right. I trust it's going to remain that way for the coming two years but I'm not going to hold my breath. But in relation to this matter anyway, if it's necessary to get a hearing on pretty quickly, if either party simply lets me know we'll list the matter even for a conference initially prior to any hearing if that's thought helpful. All right?

PN27

MS DE PAZ: Yes.

PN28

MR DOUGLAS: May it please.

PN29

THE COMMISSIONER: The other thing I'll do, in relation to the statements that have just been read onto the transcript we'll order the transcript today and make sure that both parties have copies for their own records and obviously the Commission can keep it attached to the Commission's file as well. Is there any other matters that need to be addressed this afternoon?

PN30

MS DE PAZ: Yes, Commissioner.

PN31

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN32

MS DE PAZ: We would like to put it on record that our organiser who is responsible on this side, Lorraine Cassin, is on annual leave so if there is any, you know, future discussions in regards to the issue on local industrial action she is the only person who may be able to provide us guidance in regard to these so we would see that, you know, the applicant would not ask for a hearing or anything like that, or conciliation conference when she's not around.

PN33

THE COMMISSIONER: When did junior officials start getting annual leave? That's a new move.

PN34

MS DE PAZ: Only this year, Commissioner.

PN35

MR DOUGLAS: Commissioner, I might have some difficulty, this is the third time we've had a hearing where Ms Cassin has been served and on no occasion has she attended yet.

PN36

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes. Do we know when Ms Cassin is due back from leave?

PN37

MS DE PAZ: Well, she's actually instructed me or advised me last year before we went on leave on 22 December she's not going to be back until late January. Apparently this leave has been, you know, applied since six months ago and - - -

PN38

THE COMMISSIONER: Okay. Well look, at any rate if there are issues that arise if you think that the Commission might be able to help I'm happy to be part of a conference. If there's a need for a hearing at the end of the day obviously we need to have the relevant people available for the hearing but it may well be that in discussions that you're obviously bound to have between now and then things might get to be sorted and if that's done, well and good. But if you need the assistance of the Commission we'll be available at relatively short notice.
All right?

PN39

MS DE PAZ: Thank you.

PN40

MR DOUGLAS: Thanks, Commissioner.

PN41

THE COMMISSIONER: If there's nothing further we'll adjourn these proceedings sine die.

<ADJOURNED INDEFINITELY [2.18PM]