Thank you all for your time during the recent drivers’ meeting. As we discussed, the PSA and the Department have been locked in negotiations in respect of the ‘recording of hours’ clause in the new award. This is the final issue in dispute between the parties which has prevented the finalisation of the award.

After extensive back and forth negotiations between our lawyers and the Department’s lawyers and after seeking further assistance from Commissioner Webster of the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC), the PSA has obtained the Department’s agreement to a sensible recording of hours clause which will accurately record your hours of work while addressing the Department’s fatigue management concerns.

The initial clause sought by the Department was:

9.1 Employees are required to record their daily hours worked, including start and finish times of any breaks or non-driving time taken, in the format as required by the Department from time to time. Recording of hours is to be done daily.

This clause ignored the important fact that drivers perform a range of duties while they are not driving. It also implied that time spent not driving should be excluded from your work hours. To address these issues, the parties have reached an in-principle agreement on the following clause:

9.1 Employees are required to record their daily hours worked, including start and finish times of any breaks, in the format as required by the Department from time to time. Recording of hours is to be done daily.

 9.2 Employees are required to record the start and finish times of any non-driving duties for fatigue management purposes in the format required by the Department from time to time. Recording of non-driving duties is to be done daily.

The above amended clause recognises that drivers are working while they are not driving and, accordingly, that time must be recorded as part of your work hours. The above clause also draws the appropriate distinction between driving and non-driving time for the purpose of fatigue management record keeping. The Department’s representatives have indicated to the PSA that they do not intend to use this data for purposes other than managing fatigue.

We now seek your endorsement of the above amended clause through a survey which will be published on Monday 21 August 2023. Your endorsement of the above clause is the final step to the finalisation of the award which will protect your employment conditions including your out of hours allowance. With this award, the Department can only change your conditions with either the PSA’s consent or orders from the IRC. Without this award, the Department can change your conditions as they please. For these reasons, the PSA and your delegates strongly endorse a YES vote!

WHS Guidelines in Award

During the drivers’ meeting, some questions were asked as to why the award does not include the WHS or fatigue management policies. The PSA advises that it is highly unusual for a public sector award to include the terms of departmental policies. The reason for this is that once the policy is included in the award, the Department loses the ability to amend the policy unless they have the union’s consent or orders from the IRC. As the control of departmental policies is seen to be the employer’s managerial prerogative, the IRC is generally reluctant to include policies in awards. The PSA has not proposed the inclusion of the WHS policies in the award and we would anticipate that such a proposal would be firmly and sensibly rejected by the Department.