Jenolan Caves members’ award update
A Section 19 review of the Jenolan Caves Award has now commenced and in line with member concerns, the Association has raised the inclusion of the Client Service Officer positions in the Award without the approval or knowledge of the PSA.
The matter was heard before the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW on Tuesday 23 July, 2019.
At that time, the PSA made the Commission aware of the issue and provided evidence as to the historical error in the making of the 2015 version of the Award.
The Department opposed the removal of the classifications on the basis that there are currently around 40 members of staff at the Caves on those classifications and that this issue needed to be addressed before any action was taken.
The Chief Commission asked the parties to meet and see if agreement could be reached on a way forward. That meeting took place on Friday, 2 August, 2019, at which time the PSA continued to express the view that the positions were incorrectly added and needed to be removed from the Award. The Department undertook to consider its position and respond prior to our next hearing in the Commission, due on 22 August, 2019.
The PSA understands that the introduction of the Customer Service Officer positions has caused issues for members at the Caves. These issues were anticipated by the PSA and members of staff, the very reason these positions were never agreed to be the PSA.
The PSA remains confident this historical wrong will be corrected, but does point out that the Commission has a responsibility to ensure that employees currently covered by this Award are not adversely affected through no fault of their own.
Dylan Smith
Industrial Officer