C&A: Private Sector Clerical & Administrative

ASU wins exemption rate removal from modern Clerks Award

By the ASU - the clerical and administrative workers union

After a campaign of 11 months duration, the ASU has succeeded in having the exemption rate removed from the modern Clerks Award due to come into operation from the 1 January 2010.

The effect of the exemption rate - inserted at the final stage of making the modern Clerks Award late last year - was to remove all but a few award protections from employees earning as little as $851 per week. These protections included such basic conditions as access to a dispute settling mechanism to resolve grievances employees may have had about the operation of the Award.

The ASU argued long and hard that the exemption clause was discriminatory. Other employees could only lose award coverage if they earned more than $100,000 per annum and then only by agreement. Clerical and administrative employees were denied award protection at less than half this rate and had no say in the matter.

The ASU raised its concerns publicly and in further submissions to the Industrial Relations Commission and in Senate inquiries into the operation of the Fair Work Act. Our concerns were also raised directly with the Federal Government.

As previously reported in our item "Federal Government moves to fix problems with modern Clerks Award after ASU campaign" of 12 May 2009, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard amended her award modernisation Request in May 2009 to ensure that employees were not unfairly denied award protection but the ASU was still required to make an application to remove the offending clause from the Clerks Award.

Key employer groups - long wedded to a policy of trying to exclude office employees from award protection - opposed the removal of the clause despite the Minister's amended award modernisation request.

However, the ASU successfully dealt with all their arguments and in a decision on 16 November 2009 the Industrial Relations Commission removed the clause, replacing it with an annualised salary clause which allows packaging of certain award entitlements into an all up rate so long as employees are not disadvantaged overall.

A link to the Commission's decision is here: http://www.airc.gov.au/awardmod/databases/clerks/decisions/2009aircfb922.htm