Page 2745 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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emerge as a way of looking after and retaining employees in place of the extra money that, until recently, has been par for the course.
When it comes to keeping people in what looks likely to be a highly pressured community sector, the availability of a portable long service scheme, while not attractive to all employers, is likely to further encourage community sector workers to stay. There are contradictions between what is needed to build a viable and valuable community sector with a skilled and committed workforce and the bottom line of so many of the organisations within it that aim to satisfy, on tight budgets, the ever expanding needs of their growing client base.
A portable long service scheme is one aspect of reasonable, equitable employment conditions of this important and growing workforce. While that may not keep all employers happy in the short term, it is a benefit for a life and we can attract and keep and develop a high-quality workforce committed to the social service sector. I would like to see this government invest a bit more thinking and organisation over the next few years into workforce development because that will be the growth area in terms of need and opportunity. Employment conditions, even for ACT public servants, are going to need to be addressed outside the usual cycle of scheduled wage increases.
It is worth noting that the APS still pays its employees 15 or 16 per cent employer superannuation. The ACT stepped away from that in 2006. So in that context it is worth looking at other benefits and conditions. The increase in parental leave for ACT public servants initiated by this government is one such example. The re-inclusion of journey cover to and from work, in workers compensation, could be another. While Comcare no longer includes journey cover, the ACT’s private workers compensation scheme does. The cost of the ACT’s private workers compensation scheme is often raised as evidence that the territory is not supportive of small business, yet the review conducted a couple of years ago suggested a course of action has not been fully implemented or responded to. On the one hand the ACT system is disadvantaged by its size. The number of claims is not high but the apparent cost-effectiveness of the ACT scheme can be affected by relatively few expensive events.
If the ACT government left Comcare and brought it into this ACT scheme, as is proposed in the review, there would be some benefits that would accrue in terms of economies of scale. It would also mean that ACT public servants would enjoy, among other benefits, cover for their journey to and from work. At the very least, that would make EBA negotiations with the CPSU and ACT employees rather easier to conduct, I would imagine.
I was disappointed to hear the minister admit to the committee that the government has not come to a policy position on this element of the workers compensation review. I am not sure what is yet to be properly considered and acted upon, but it seems clear to me that in the context of a financial crisis issues around the care and protection of workers take on particular significance.
UnionsACT have raised a number of matters with us, including controls over workforce surveillance and the need for an industrial magistrate or tribunal to deal with matters such as unfair dismissal under the national fair work regime. I would
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