WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMISSION. Industrial Relations Act 1979. The Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union of Workers (Western Australian Branch) and Bains Harding Pty Ltd. No. AG 89 of 1997. Bains Harding Industries (Manufacturing Division) Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. 1 May 1997. Order. HAVING heard Mr G.C. Sturman as agent for the Applicant and Ms C. Natta as agent for the Respondent, and by consent, the Commission, pursuant to the powers conferred on it under the Industrial Relations Act, 1979, hereby orders— THAT the agreement made between the parties in the terms of the following schedule and lodged in the Com- mission on the 2nd day of April, 1997 entitled Bains Harding Industries (Manufacturing Division) Enterprise Bargaining Agreement be registered as an industrial agree- ment. (Sgd.) G.L. FIELDING, [L.S.] Senior Commissioner. ——— Schedule 1.0.—TITLE This Agreement shall be known as the “Bains Harding Industries (Manufacturing Division) Enterprise Bargaining Agreement”. 2.0.—ARRANGEMENT 1. Title 2. Arrangement 3. Area and Scope 4. Parties Bound 5. Date and Period of Operation 6. Insurance Cover 7. Relationship to Parent Award 8. Single Bargaining Unit 9. Training 10. Productivity Improvement Programme 11. Probationary Period 12. Casual Employees 13. Sick Leave 14. Commitments 15. Hours of Work 16. Wages 17. Grievance Settlement Procedure 18. National Standards 19. Contractors Signatories to Agreement 3.0.—AREA AND SCOPE This Agreement shall apply to an estimated 20 employees engaged in classification specified in Clause 16—Wages hereof at the Osborne Park Fabrication Workshop of Bains Harding Industries Pty. Ltd. 4.0.—PARTIES BOUND 4.1. This Agreement shall apply to — (a) Bains Harding Industries Pty. Ltd. Osborne Park Fab- rication Workshop (the “Employer”); and (b) The Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Print- ing and Kindred Industries Union of Workers Western Australian Branch. 4.2. The parties specified in Subclause 4.1. hereof agree that the intention of entering into this Agreement is to achieve real and demonstrative gains in productivity, efficiency and flexibility for the purpose of improving working conditions for all employees and the commercial position of the Company and its customers. 5.0.—DATE AND PERIOD OF OPERATION 5.1. This Agreement shall operate for a period of 24 months from the date of signing by all parties and will continue after this time until renewed or replaced or cancelled. Pay increases related to the first agreed increase will be back paid to 6 January 1997. 5.2. The parties shall endeavour to commence negotiations for replacement, renewal or cancellation of the Agreement no earlier than three months prior to its expiry date. 5.3. The Company agrees that an additional 14% in wages will be paid over a two year period. 5.4. The additional 14% will be paid in three instalments as follows — (a) 5.0% payable on and from the first full pay period following date of signing of the Agreement by all parties; (b) 4.5% payable on and from 10 months from date of signing of the Agreement by all parties; (c) 4.5% payable on and from 18 months from date of signing of the Agreement by all parties. 6.0.—INSURANCE COVER Employees will have personal accident insurance journey cover to and from their place of work from date of signing of the Agreement by all parties this cover shall be no less than provided to employees in other operations of the company in W.A. 7.0.—RELATIONSHIP TO PARENT AWARDS 7.1. This Agreement shall be read and interpreted wholly in conjunction with part I of the Metal Trades (General) Award 1966 No. 13 of 1965 and the Sheet Metal Workers’ Award No. 10 of 1973. 7.2. Where there is any inconsistency between this Agreement and the parent Awards, the Agreement shall prevail to the extent of such inconsistency. 8.0.—SINGLE BARGAINING UNIT 8.1. For the purposes of this Agreement a single bargaining unit shall be established by way of a Consultative Committee comprised of — (a) two Company representatives; and (b) two representatives from the workforce. 8.2. The single bargaining unit shall be given all relevant information to enable effective monitoring of the implementation of the continuous improvement programme. 9.0.—TRAINING The Company will develop a training programme in conjunction with the consultative committee to meet the skills requirements of the work place and advancement of personnel within the Workshop Workforce. 10.0.—PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME 10.1. The following measures will achieve real and demonstrable gains in productivity, efficiency and flexibility have been, or will be, implemented. 10.2. Consultation and Communication Two-way communication between management and employees will be maintained and enhanced through the following — (a) Regular management report-back meetings with all employees; (b) Monthly Consultative Committee meetings for three months after signing of the Agreement and when- ever required thereafter; (c) Tool box meetings held as required to discuss sched- uling and accident prevention programmes WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE 77 W.A.I.G. 1130 10.3. Employee Involvement Employees are to become involved and to continue focusing on— (a) Customer service, both internal and external; (b) Reduction in down time, waste and replacement parts; (c) Productivity projects to improve quality and output without increasing overall costs. 10.4. Improvement Measures In order to achieve the main aims of improved efficiency, productivity and flexibility, the following measures shall be implemented and the Consultative Committee will develop a system to monitor and report progress in relation to the objectives— a. Occupational Health and Safety Improved safety procedures and monitoring of meth- ods to reduce the duration of time lost through injury. b. Reductions in Sick Leave and Absenteeism i. The parties aim to reduce the number of ab- sent/sick leave days taken, achievable through monitoring in an effort to improve perform- ance in this area. ii. The aim of this Agreement is to reduce sick leave to 50% of the Award entitlement. c. Staff Assistance to Wages Employees Staff may use tools provided this does not in any way replace the jobs of employees covered by this Agreement. d. Consumables i. A concerted effort will be made by all employ- ees to reduce wastage in consumable items such as gloves, glasses, grinding discs etc. ii. The Consultative Committee will develop a system to monitor and report progress in rela- tion to this objective. e. Flexibility of Rostered Day Off For the purposes of this Agreement a rostered day off (RDO) will mean a recreational day off. RDO’s may be taken on any day of the week without loss of ordi- nary time earnings with mutual agreement between the employee and the employee’s immediate supervi- sor and depending on workload. Individual employee’s by agreement with employer may accumulate RDO’s/ RDO’s which are accumulated may be taken as time off without loss of ordinary time earnings at a time agreed between the employee and employer. An annual review of outstanding RDO’s will be car- ried out to monitor any outstanding accrued RDO’s. f. Completion of Jobs For the purposes of meeting client delivery dead- lines, employees will complete work in hand each day by working reasonable overtime. g. Overtime Refusal As stated in the Award, employees shall not refuse to work reasonable overtime when requested so to do by the Supervisor. Reasonable overtime is re- garded as 6 hours per week spread over not less than 5 days provided the employee is given not less than 1 day’s notice. By agreement between the employee and employer a shorter notice period may be given. h. Hours Of Work When overtime is being worked, employees will consolidate an afternoon smoko time with a meal break. i. Overtime Rate All hours worked in addition to the ordinary hours for the week will be paid at the rate of 1.7 times the ordinary hourly rate. Except where the hours worked in any week that are in excess of 60 hours in that week shall be paid for at a rate of double the ordi- nary hourly rate. j. Time Keeping to promote prompt and efficient time keeping, em- ployees will monitor their own starting, smoko and finishing times. 11.0.—PROBATIONARY PERIOD As part of an on-going selection process, all new employees will be employed for a one month probationary period during which time the employee or the employer may terminate the contract of employment by giving one hour’s notice and an employee so terminated shall be deemed to have been employed on a casual basis. 12.0.—CASUAL EMPLOYEES 12.1. a. In the case of a casual employee, the period of notice of termination shall be one hour. b. If the required notice of termination is not given, one hour’s wages shall be paid by the employer or forfeited by the employee. 12.2. For the purpose of this Agreement an employee shall be deemed to be casual— a. if the expected duration of the employment is less than three months; or b. if the notification referred to in Subclause (6) of Clause 6—Contract of Service in the Metal Trades (General) Award No. 13 of 1965 is not given and the employee is dismissed, through no fault of the em- ployee, within three months of commencing employment; c. if the employee is employed for a specific seasonal demand provided that the season does not exceed six months. 12.3. After continuous employment of three months with Bains Harding Industries, a casual who is not employed for a specific seasonal demand shall become a permanent employee. Accruals for annual leave etc. will commence from the date the employee’s employment becomes permanent. 13.0.—SICK LEAVE Notwithstanding the provisions of Clause 24—Absence Through Sickness in the Metal Trades (General) Award, it is a condition of employment an employee shall not be entitled to payment for sick leave unless, other than in extraordinary circumstances, the absence is reported to management prior to 8.00 AM on the day in question. 14.0.—COMMITMENTS 14.1. The parties undertake that the terms of this Agreement will not be used to progress or obtain similar arrangements or benefits in any other enterprise. 14.2. Parties to this Agreement shall oppose any application by others to be joined to this Agreement. 14.3. There shall not be any further wage increases for the life of this Agreement except where consistent with State Wage Case decisions. 15.0.—HOURS OF WORK 15.1. Ordinary Hours of Work/General Flexibility Provisions The ordinary hours of work shall be 38 per week, worked in accordance with this clause. a. Ordinary working hours may be averaged out over a cycle longer or shorter than one week. b. By agreement between the employer and an indi- vidual employee or group of employees the ordinary hours may be worked on any days of the week, Mon- day to Friday inclusive. c. For all employees, ordinary daily hours, except when on shift work, shall be worked between 6.00 AM and 6.00 PM, or some other spread of hours as mu- tually agreed between management and employees, but shall not exceed 10 hours on any day and be con- secutive, except for a meal break. 15.2. Alterations to Ordinary Working Hours Any new arrangement of ordinary hours introduced during the life of this Agreement — a. must be developed with consideration given to the issues specified below; b. by agreement between the employer and an individual employee or group of employees the ordinary hours may be worked on any days of the week, Monday to Friday inclusive however flexibility to extend this provision must be agreed upon by the majority of employees affected by the change. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL GAZETTE 1131 77 W.A.I.G. c. when changes to ordinary working hours are deemed necessary, consideration shall be given to the fol- lowing issues— i. forecasted and actual customer demand ii. the most productive and efficient operation; iii. maximum utilisation of plant at the workplace iv. personal needs and family responsibilities v. fair application of flexible working arrange- ments for all employees vi. reasonable notice of any prospective change. 15.3. Rest Breaks a. Employees shall not be required to work for more than six hours without an unpaid break of 30 min- utes, except where an alternative arrangement has been agreed upon. b. Each employee shall be allowed a paid rest break of 10 minutes, including wash-up time, to be taken at a time and in a manner determined by the section su- pervisor to ensure minimal disruption to operations. 16.0.—WAGES Employees shall be paid as follows — 17.0.—GRIEVANCE SETTLEMENT PROCEDURE 17.1. Where a question, dispute or difficulty arises with respect to this Agreement, the matter shall initially be discussed between the employee concerned and his/her immediate supervisor. The employee may elect to have representation during the discussions. 17.2. Where the matter of concern remains unresolved, it shall then be referred to the Consultative Committee for discussion. The employee may elect for a Union Official to become involved. The parties shall initiate steps to resolve the grievance as soon as possible. 17.3. If the grievance cannot be resolved after following the procedures outlined herein, either party may refer the matter to the