The PSA is pleased to advise that it has reached an in-principle agreement with the State to settle its award contravention proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Supreme Court).  The proceedings have been detailed in previous bulletins and represent an important stage in the PSA’s long running fight to improve the conditions of all Rural Fire Service (RFS) employees.

In short, the Supreme Court proceedings concern two things:  the RFS’s failure to pay overtime to day workers and the RFS’s failure to provide leave in lieu of overtime to shift workers.  The PSA seeks orders confirming that the RFS contravened the RFS Award, backpay to the 5-day workers in the proceedings (totaling $25,000) and financial penalties.

The PSA’s primary goal in the proceedings is to get the RFS to comply with the RFS Award by providing overtime pay and leave in lieu of pay (calculated at the penalty rate) to employees.

The key terms of the agreement are:

1. The RFS concedes that employees are entitled to overtime pay and leave in lieu of pay if they work after hours at the ‘request or requirement’ of the RFS. This means that, for example, attending AGMs, training, hazard reductions, community engagement meeting (etc), after hours is overtime and employees can elect between overtime pay and leave in lieu of pay. In accordance with the Conditions Award, leave in lieu may be taken subject to the RFS’s convenience.
2. The State will create a fund containing $5,000,000 which will be distributed to all ‘eligible employees’.
3. The RFS will return to the negotiating table to discuss amendments to the RFS Award. If negotiations fail, the amendments will be arbitrated by the IRC.

It will be the PSA’s position in the negotiations that the RFS Award should be amended to remove the condition that leave in lieu is subject to the RFS’s convenience.

The in-principle agreement is a significant win for PSA members.  At the beginning of this process in 2016, the RFS staunchly opposed providing its employees with paid overtime or leave in lieu of overtime.  Instead, the RFS was of the view that its employees were only entitled to hour for hour time off.  The entitlement to paid overtime prospectively will assist in managing ongoing cost of living pressures and leave in lieu of overtime will provide for greater periods of rest from work. As a bonus, the PSA has also secured backpay of $5,000,000. For these reasons, your delegates and industrial staff strongly endorse a ‘yes’ vote.

Distribution of the $5,000,000

The $5,000,000 will be evenly and totally distributed among all ‘eligible employees’. Eligible employees are employees who:

1. are employed as day workers under the RFS Award or Psychologist Award; and
2. have worked after hours since December 2017; and
3. signed a deed of release agreeing not to sue the RFS for unpaid overtime.

If an employee does not sign the deed, their share of the $5,000,000 will be distributed to the remaining eligible employees.

The parties have agreed to pay each ‘eligible employee’ the same amount, irrespective of length of service or the Annualised Conditions Allowance (ACA).  This is due to the RFS’s inability to prorate the payment based on both the length of service and the ACA. This was not the PSA’s proposal.

While this method of distribution is undoubtedly inequitable, the payment is an added bonus in addition to the RFS conceding the overtime entitlements moving forward and which avoids the burden of each eligible employee having to calculate their backpay and pursue payment (an impossible exercise for most given the RFS’s failure to maintain records of hours worked).

The PSA will issue a further bulletin in the new year overviewing the next steps to finalise the proceedings. These next steps will include a vote of membership which the PSA industrial staff and elected delegates will support a ‘yes’ vote. Only PSA members will have a say in the vote so encourage your colleagues to join today.