WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMISSION. Industrial Relations Act 1979. Hospital Salaried Officers Association of Western Australia (Union of Workers) and Metropolitan Health Service Board. No. PSAAG 3 of 1999. Hospital Salaried Officers Metropolitan Health Service Board Enterprise Agreement 1999. 19 January 1999. Order. HAVING heard Mr C. D. Panizza as agent for the Applicant and Mr S. Barton on behalf of Respondent, and by consent, the Commission, pursuant to the powers conferred on it under the Industrial Relations Act, 1979, hereby orders— 1. THAT the agreement made between the parties as lodged in the Commission on the 13th day of Janu- ary, 1999 entitled Hospital Salaried Officers Metropolitan Health Service Board Enterprise Agree- ment 1999 and as subsequently amended by direction of the Commission in the terms of the following Schedule be registered as an industrial agreement in replacement of the following industrial agreements which are hereby cancelled— Hospital Salaried Officers Royal Perth Hos- pital Enterprise Bargaining Agreement 1997 (PSA AG 11 of 1997), Hospital Salaried Of- ficers Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Enterprise Bargaining Agreement 1997 (PSA AG 12 of 1997), Hospital Salaried Officers Bentley Health Service Enterprise Bargaining Agree- ment 1997 (PSA AG 14 of 1997), Hospital Salaried Officers King Edward Memorial and Princess Margaret Hospitals Enterprise Bar- gaining Agreement 1997 (PSA AG 22 of 1997), Hospital Salaried Officers Swan Health Service Enterprise Bargaining Agreement 1997 (PSA AG 24 of 1997), Hospital Salaried Officers Kalamunda Health Service Enterprise Bargaining Agreement 1997 (PSA AG 25 of 1997), Hospital Salaried Officers Armadale Health Service Enterprise Bargaining Agree- ment 1997 (PSA AG 29 of 1997), Hospital Salaried Officers Armadale Health Service Enterprise Bargaining Agreement 1997 WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE 449 79 W.A.I.G. (PSA AG 14 of 1998), Hospital Salaried Of- ficers North Metropolitan Health Service Enterprise Bargaining Agreement 1998 (PSA AG 15 of 1998) and Hospital Salaried Offic- ers Rockingham-Kwinana Health Service Enterprise Bargaining Agreement 1997 (PSA AG 16 of 1998). 2. THAT the PMH/KEMH Patient Information Man- agement Services Part Time Workers Order of 1998 (No. P 33 of 1998) be and is hereby repealed. (Sgd.) G. L. FIELDING, [L.S.] Senior Commissioner. ——— Schedule. 1.—TITLE This Agreement shall be titled the Hospital Salaried Officers Metropolitan Health Service Board Enterprise Agreement 1999. 2.—ARRANGEMENT 1. Title 2. Arrangement 3. Purpose of Agreement 4. Application and Parties Bound 5. Term of Agreement 6. No Extra Claims 7. Objectives, Principles and Commitments 8. Framework and Principles for Identifying Produc- tivity Improvements and Bargaining 9. Awards, Agreements and Workplace Agreements 10. Rates of Pay and their Adjustment 11. Resources for Ongoing Productivity Improvement and Further Enterprise Bargaining Negotiations 12. Dispute Avoidance and Settlement Procedures 13. Hours 14. Part-Time Employees 15. Medical Imaging Technologists 16. Public Holidays 17. Long Service Leave 18. Sick Leave 19. Taking of Annual Leave 20. Family, Bereavement and Personal Leave 21. Parental Leave 22. Award Consolidation 23. Higher Duties 24. Allowances 25. Overpayments 26. Contract of Service—Probation 27. Travelling Allowance 28. Mobility 29. Skills Acquisition, Training and Employee Devel- opment 30. Salary Packaging 31. Salaries 32. Review of Corporate & Support Services 33. Establishment of Competencies for Levels 1 & 2 34. Review of Sick Leave Management 35. Ratification ATTACHMENT 1—Model for Identifying Produc- tivity Increases ATTACHMENT 2—Award Amendments 3.—PURPOSE OF AGREEMENT (1) This Agreement aims to achieve improvements in productivity and efficiency and the enhanced performance of the Metropolitan Health Service Board along with allowing the benefits from those improvements to be shared by employees, the Metropolitan Health Service Board and the Government on behalf of the Community. (2) This Agreement places priority on the parties at Metropolitan Health Service Board taking responsibility for their own human resource and labour relations affairs and reaching agreement on issues appropriate to the Metropolitan Health Service Board. 4.—APPLICATION AND PARTIES BOUND (1) This agreement applies to the Hospital Salaried Officers Association of Western Australia (Union of Workers) (HSOA), the Employees covered by the Hospital Salaried Officer’s Award No. 39 of 1968 and employed by the Metropolitan Health Service Board, and the Metropolitan Health Service Board (MHSB). (2) The estimated number of employees bound by this Agreement at the time of registration is 5000. (3) This Agreement shall be read in conjunction with the Hospital Salaried Officers Award No. 39 of 1968 (hereafter sometimes referred to as “the Award”) and shall replace the provisions of that Award where expressly stated herein. Wherever there is an inconsistency between the Agreement and the Award, the Agreement shall take precedence. (4) This Agreement cancels and replaces the following agreements; PSA AG11/1997, PSA AG12/1997, PSA AG14/ 1997, PSA AG22/1997, PSA AG24/1997, PSA AG25/1997, PSA AG29/1997, PSA AG14/1998, PSA AG15/1998 and PSA AG16/1998. 5.—TERM OF AGREEMENT (1) This Agreement shall operate from the date of Registration until its expiry 30 months after the date of registration. (2) The parties to this Agreement agree to re-open negotiations at least no later than six months prior to the expiry of this Agreement. 6.—NO EXTRA CLAIMS Subject to the terms of this agreement, for life of the agreement, the HSOA shall make no further claims on the MHSB. 7.—OBJECTIVES, PRINCIPLES AND COMMITMENTS (1) The parties agree that the objectives of this Agreement are to— (a) improve the productivity and efficiency of the MHSB; (b) facilitate greater flexibility in the management of conditions and work arrangements across the MHSB; (c) ensure high quality patient services in a safe, healthy and equitable work environment; (d) ensure high quality of employment and jobs; and (e) provide a pathway to providing a wage increase to employees based upon the achievement of improved productivity and efficiency. (2) By— (a) ensuring that gains achieved through agreed im- proved productivity and changes in workplace culture are shared by employees, MHSB and its clients and the Government on behalf of the community; (b) ensuring that the MHSB operates in a manner con- sistent with the principles outlined in Section 7 of the Public Sector Management Act; (c) developing and pursuing changes on a co-operative basis; and (d) ensuring that the MHSB operates as effectively, ef- ficiently and competitively as possible. (3) The Hospital Salaried Officers Association and the MHSB, Management and Employees bound by this Agreement are committed to— (a) Support and actively contribute to health service con- tinuous quality improvement, including best practice, where best practice— (i) is simply the best way of doing things; (ii) is a continuous improvement process which involves constantly changing, adapting and integrating related approaches to health serv- ice issues; (iii) practices are not fixed and not restricted to an examination of costs, but also include quality and delivery issues; (iv) is outcome rather than simply activity based; (v) provides the processes, structures, rights and obligations that are essential to ensure that the full capacity for innovation of employees is fully and effectively used; WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE 79 W.A.I.G. 450 (vi) depends on effective training, empowerment and participation of both management and employees to acquire and utilise the skills which are necessary to effectively develop, implement and evaluate the change process; and (vii) are to be based on the following principles— • customer/patient focus • management commitment • employee participation • leadership • information analysis • policies and plans • appropriate standards • hospital/health service performance • cost effectiveness • working smarter (b) Support the clinical, teaching, research and organi- sational goals of the health service and contribute to the achievement of those goals as active members of the health service community. (c) Support and actively contribute to the achievement and/or maintenance of ACHS Accreditation. (d) Actively contribute to the achievement of health serv- ice budgets. (e) Assist with achieving Health Department defined waiting list priorities and day surgery targets. (f) Co-operate with the development and implementa- tion of strategies to achieve length of stay targets. (g) Participate in a Multi-disciplinary approach to pa- tient care. (h) The principles of public sector administration; in particular to the principles contained in Sections 7, 8 and 9 of the Public Sector Management Act 1994. (4) In addition, the MHSB is committed to facilitating and encouraging the participation and commitment of employees. 8.—FRAMEWORK AND PRINCIPLES FOR IDENTIFYING PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS AND BARGAINING (1) (a) Following the receipt of a request from the HSOA to negotiate a new Agreement, in accordance with Clause 5. - Term of Agreement, a representative from the MHSB will meet with a representative from the HSOA to discuss the request as soon as practicable but in any event within five working days of the receipt of the request. These discussions should include process issues such as what sort of bargaining mechanism will be established, what consultative process can be used or needs to be put in place, possible initiatives to be considered and the time frame. Negotiations will be conducted in a manner and time frame agreed by the parties to this Agreement. (b) The negotiations should occur on the basis of a broad agenda of initiatives designed to improve efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, patient care and flexibility within the MHSB. (c) The agenda should include but not be limited to— (i) changes in work organisation, job design and work- ing patterns and arrangements; (ii) examination of terms and conditions of employment to ensure they are suited to the MHSB’s operational requirements; (iii) identification and implementation of best practice across all areas of service delivery; (iv) (i), (ii) and (iii) can be achieved by means including but not limited to— (aa) new training and skills development programs as and where required; (bb) the optimum use of human and capital re- sources including new technology; (cc) quality assurance and continuous improvement programs; (dd) having due regard to operational requirements, allowing sufficient flexibility to enable em- ployees to meet their family responsibilities; and (ee) active occupational health and safety risk re- duction, training and rehabilitation programs. (2) In negotiating further salary increases in return for productivity improvements, the parties should ensure that the following issues have been addressed and/or applied— (a) Productivity Improvements Productivity improvements are changes which in- crease the efficiency and effectiveness of the MHSB in meeting its agreed and contracted service programs and outcomes. Productivity improvements may be related to work practices or arrangements. They may be things which go to minimise the cost of what is done, to the way things are done, to when they are done, to the quality of what is done or to improve the ability of the provider to meet patient and customer needs. They may or may not require changes from Award conditions. Without limiting any of the above, in practice, the primary focus of Enterprise Bargaining in the workplace is likely to be on best practice, efficiency, effectiveness, competitiveness, cost savings, and quality of employment. (b) Sharing Gains from Productivity Improvement The parties accept that there is no precise formula for the sharing of gains from productivity improve- ments, but in any agreement, in addition to employee benefits, there must be a clear and specific return to the MHSB and/or the Government. Productivity improvements may be related to work practices or arrangements, subject to acceptance that where capi- tal expenditure requires changes in work methods and/or the number of employees and the changes are of a nature that enhances the investment, it shall qualify as a productivity improvement, provided that there is a net quantifiable benefit to the MHSB. Any agreement reached should not rely primarily on improvements which are merely the result of new technology or financial reforms or other such initia- tives. For example; in the case of capital investment (technology), changes arising from capital expendi- ture for which the MHSB takes the risk and which require a reasonable return on the funds invested, do not necessarily count as a productivity improvement. The treatment of improved efficiency arising from major capital expenditure is to be agreed by the MHSB and the HSOA and shall take into account factors such as the cost of capital. Where employees repackage or exchange employ- ment conditions, all or most of the saving or productivity improvement made by the MHSB can be returned to the employees. (c) Identifying Productivity Increases To assist in identifying and negotiating productivity improvements during the life of this agreement and in negotiating the next agreement a model for identi- fying productivity increases is contained in Attachment 1. 9.—AWARDS, AGREEMENTS AND WORKPLACE AGREEMENTS (1) Relationship Between Agreements and Awards Consistent with the Industrial Relations Act 1979 and the State Wage Principles, this Agreement shall provide the whole of the employees’ wage increases for the life of the Agreement. (2) Choice between this Agreement and Workplace Agreements (a) The parties accept that Employees will be given an in- formed and free choice between this Agreement and Workplace Agreements; (b) To facilitate the making of an informed and free choice— (i) Employees who are to be offered a choice between this Agreement and a workplace agreement may only WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE 451 79 W.A.I.G. be required to indicate their choice after the employee has been offered the position. (ii) Where an employee has been offered a choice the employee shall have a minimum of seven days in which to decide which alternative to take, provided that where it is necessary to fill a position within a period of less than seven days or where an employer agrees to an employee commencing within a period of less than seven days, the employee shall have up to the date of formal acceptance. (iii) The employee shall be provided with— (aa) a copy of an agreed summary of this Agree- ment; and (bb) a copy of a summary of the Workplace Agreement. (iv) At the request of an employee, the employee shall be provided with; (aa) access to a copy of this Agreement and the Workplace Agreement; (bb) any other relevant documentation, such as in- formation on salary packaging; and (cc) information on where they can obtain further advice and on how to contact the Union. For its part, the HSOA undertakes to advise all employees on the matter of choice whether or not they are members of the HSOA. (c) If agreement on any aspect of this clause is not able to be reached the dispute settlement procedure set out in Clause 12 of this Agreement is to be followed. (3) By agreement between the employer and the employee, an employee who has signed a Workplace Agreement prior to the registration of this S.41 Industrial Agreement can revisit the Workplace Agreement in light of this Agreement. (4) All staff transferred or redeployed to the MHSB from within the Public Sector or within the Government Health In- dustry may be offered the choice of a Workplace Agreement or this Agreement subject to the discretion of the MHSB. (5) All promotional positions and new staff recruited by the MHSB from outside the Public Sector may be provided with the choice of a Workplace Agreement or this Agreement, sub- ject to the discretion of the MHSB. (6) In the exercising of the discretion to only offer a Workplace Agreement under subclauses (4) and (5) of this clause, the MHSB shall ensure that the decision to only offer a Workplace Agreement is made for legitimate operational reasons. In exercising their discretion to only offer a Workplace Agreement, the MHSB is to liaise with the HSOA to ensure it is not done to circumvent the option of choice. 10.—RATES OF PAY AND THEIR ADJUSTMENT This Agreement provides for the following salary increases— (a) 3.0% from 1 January 1999; (b) 2.5% 12 months after the date of registration (c) 2.0% 24 months after the date of registration. The final payment of 2% may be supplemented by an additional productivity dividend. Negotiations of any productivity dividend are to commence no later than 1 July, 2000. Any dividend paid under this arrange- ment is subject to real cash savings being identified, in excess of those savings required to fund the above payments, and will be limited by Government wages policy. The effective rates are shown in Clause 31—Salaries of this Agreement. 11.—RESOURCES FOR ONGOING PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT AND FURTHER ENTERPRISE BARGAINING NEGOTIATIONS (1) It is recognised that enterprise bargaining places consid- erable obligations upon the parties at the MHSB. (2) (a) To assist in meeting these obligations, the MHSB will assist by providing appropriate resources having regard to the operational requirements of the MHSB and resource requirements associated with developing productivity improve- ments under this Agreement and with negotiating a new agreement; (b) It is accepted that employees of the MHSB who are in- volved in the productivity improvement and the enterprise bargaining processes will be allowed reasonable paid time to fulfil their responsibilities in this process; (c) Access to resources shall be negotiated with the MHSB and shall not unreasonably affect the operation of the MHSB; (d) Any paid time or resources shall be provided in a manner suitable to both parties and to enable negotiations to occur and to assist in the achievement of improvements and of agree- ment. (e) The parties accept that the process of bargaining in good faith includes disclosing relevant information, as appropriate for the purposes of the negotiations and confidentiality and privacy in the negotiation process will be respected at all times. (f) The parties accept that on occasions the nature of certain information may prejudice a party’s position or not assist in the resolution of the matter. Subject to the rights of the parties to invoke Clause 12.—Dispute Avoidance and Settlement Pro- cedures of this Agreement, a decision on whether or not to exchange or divulge information will be a matter for the rel- evant party to decide, provided that information shall not be unreasonably withheld; (g) Where information of a commercial or sensitive nature is exchanged, the parties agree not to use or divulge that infor- mation outside of the negotiating forums. (3) No officer or employee will be discriminated against as a result of activities conducted in accordance with this clause. 12.—DISPUTE AVOIDANCE AND SETTLEMENT PROCEDURES (1) This clause is to be read in conjunction with Clause 27 of the Award. The objective of this Clause is to provide a set of procedures for dealing with any question, dispute or diffi- culty arising under this Agreement and for dealing with any question, dispute or difficulty between the parties during ne- gotiations for amendments to this Agreement. (2) Subject to the Public Sector Management Act 1994, in the event of any question, dispute or difficulty arising under this Agreement, the following procedures shall apply, provided that nothing in these procedures shall prevent the Secretary of the HSOA (or his/her nominee) from intervening to assist in the process— (a) The matter is to be discussed between the HSOA employee representative and the employer repre- sentative and an attempt made to resolve the matter; (b) If the matter is unable to be resolved through discus- sions between the HSOA employee representative and the employer representative, the matter is to be discussed between the employee representative and a representative nominated by the Chairman of the MHSB (or his/her nominee), as soon as practicable but within five working days. Notification of any question, dispute or difficulty may be made verbally and/or in writing; (c) The parties may individually or collectively seek advice from any appropriate organisation or person in an attempt to resolve the matter; (d) If the matter is not resolved within five working days of the date of notification in (b) hereof, either party may notify the Secretary of the HSOA (or his/her nominee), or a representative nominated by the Chair- man of the MHSB (or his/her nominee) of the existence of a dispute or disagreement; (e) The Secretary of the HSOA (or his/her nominee) a representative nominated by the Chairman of the MHSB (or his/her nominee) shall confer on the mat- ters notified by the parties within five working days and— (i) where there is agreement on the matters in dis- pute the parties shall be advised within two working days; (ii) where there is disagreement on any matter it may be submitted to the Western Australian Industrial Relation Commission. (3) Where any matter is referred to the