Media Release

K4705 17 May 1999

The Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service, Dr David Kemp, today released the 1999 Policy Parameters for Agreement Making in the Australian Public Service (APS).

"APS agencies and their employees now have even greater flexibility in making workplace agreements. With these new Parameters, the Government is continuing to devolve responsibility for terms and conditions of employment to agencies," said Dr Kemp.

"We are proud that the APS is a leading sector in taking up the opportunities presented by the Workplace Relations Act. Virtually all APS employees are now covered by certified agreements. The APS, which was subject to a regime of detailed prescription centrally negotiated with unions, is being transformed through a range of agreement making approaches."

Dr Kemp said the variety of agreement making options taken up by the APS compares well with other federal sectors:

• 43 certified agreements have been made directly with employees;

• 54 comprehensive certified agreements have been made (rather than ‘add ons’ to awards and previous agreements); and

• 3,680 Australian Workplace Agreements have been made with individual public servants."

"The diversity in pay and conditions outcomes achieved under APS agreements reflects the differences in business requirements between agencies. This demonstrates how inappropriate the former centralised, prescriptive approach was."

Key initiatives include: a range of pay increases, time scales, and pay progression and/or bonuses linked to performance; and changes to conditions in areas such as, more flexible hours to improve customer service and to balance work and family needs; and, simplified leave and personnel processing.

The 1999 Policy Parameters embody six key Government policy objectives and provide a more streamlined framework for agency agreement making than the 1997 Parameters.

"The Government expects that the momentum of public sector reform will be accelerated as agencies continue to pursue best practice agreement making. We encourage agencies to develop further innovations to achieve high performance public sector organisations which will deliver better services to their clients."

Further information on the attached 1999 Parameters is available on the Internet: http://www.dewrsb.gov.au/group_wr/default.htm

ATTACHMENT

POLICY PARAMETERS FOR AGREEMENT MAKING
IN THE APS (MAY 1999)

Agreement making in the APS will be subject to the following Policy Parameters. Agency Heads will be responsible for ensuring that their agreements are consistent with them. The Parameters apply to both AWAs and certified agreements, unless otherwise indicated.

Government policy objectives for agreement making

Agencies are responsible for managing relations with their employees consistent with the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (WR Act).

Certified agreements and AWAs are to:

1. be consistent with the Government’s workplace relations policy, including:

- fostering more direct relations between employers and employees;

- protecting freedom of association and securing appropriate right of entry;

- not limiting future agreement making options;

- providing, within certified agreements, for comprehensive AWAs to be made with staff; and

- being comprehensive agreements (at a minimum, by displacing existing agreements, and wherever possible, awards)

2. be consistent with the Government’s APS remuneration policy that improvements to pay and conditions be linked to productivity gains

3. be consistent with the Government’s industry development policy in relation to Australian-made vehicles

4. be funded from within agency appropriations

5. provide for access to compulsory redeployment, reduction and retrenchment and ensure that:

- any revision to redundancy provisions, including in an AWA, is not an enhancement of the existing redundancy obligations applying to an agency; and

- any separate financial incentives to resolve major organisational change are to be cost neutral to the agency in the context of that change and subject to the approval of the responsible Minister, in consultation with the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service.

6. facilitate mobility and maintain a cohesive APS by:

- maintaining the APS classification structure (with the ability to broadband it further), or an authorised agency structure, with effective performance management arrangements to guide salary movement;

- retaining portability of accrued paid leave entitlements, with future entitlements being those of the receiving agency; and

- including facilitative provisions to apply transitional terms and conditions to those staff transferring from another agency as a result of Machinery of Government changes

Agencies are to:

- provide to the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business (DEWRSB) their draft certified agreement and their assessment of it against the Government’s policy objectives; and

- in seeking his/her approval of the agreement, advise the responsible Minister of any policy issues identified by DEWRSB.

1. In addition to the supporting guidance on the Parameters, DEWRSB will support agencies, generally on a cost recovered basis, in order to promote effective agreement making processes across the APS. Guidance will be updated to take account of policy and legislative developments and emerging issues identified by agencies.

The Public Service and Merit Protection Commission will also provide advice and guidance to agencies on those policy areas for which it is responsible.

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