National Security (Economic Organization) Regulations (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1945.No. 11.

 

REGULATION UNDER THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT 1939-1943.*

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulation under the National Security Act 1939-1943.

Dated this first day of February, 1945.

HENRY

Governor-General.

By His Royal Highness’s Command,

 

JOHN CURTIN

Minister of State for Defence.

 

Amendment of the National Security (Economic Organization) Regulations.

Regulations 14 to 18 (inclusive) of the National Security (Economic Organization) Regulations are repealed and the following regulations are inserted in their stead:—

Interpretation.

“14. For the purposes of this Part—

‘employee’ includes a director of a company who is paid any remuneration, whether by a periodical payment or by fees or otherwise;

‘Industrial Authority’ means the Court and includes any other tribunal or person constituted by or under any law of the Commonwealth for the purpose of hearing and determining industrial disputes and making awards or orders in settlement thereof, and any tribunal which is a State Industrial Authority within the meaning of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1934, and also includes the Public Service Arbitrator and any tribunal, body or persons having power, by virtue of any law, to determine rates of remuneration for apprentices;

 

* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on 1st February, 1945.

  Statutory Rules 1942, No. 76 as amended by Statutory Rules 1942, Nos. 81, 110, 127, 145, 160, 218, 221, 224, 248, 257, 293, 318, 382, 344, 425, 458, 490, 537 and 539; 1943, Nos. 21, 60, 76, 142 and 278; and 1944, Nos. 52, 83, 99 and 148.

6398.—Price 5d.

 

‘Public Employment Authority’ means an authority established by or under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory of the Commonwealth having power to fix the rate of remuneration of an employee of the Commonwealth or of the State or Territory of the Commonwealth or of any authority established by or under any such law;

‘the Court’ means the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration.

Rates of wages not to be altered.

“15— (1.) Subject to this Part, an employer shall not pay or offer to pay, and an employee shall not accept or seek to accept, any remuneration in respect of the employment, at a rate different from—

(a) the rate, in relation to that employment, prescribed by an award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority or by an industrial agreement or fixed by a Public Employment Authority, and for the time being in force; or

(b) where no such rate is so prescribed or fixed, the rate being paid by the employer on the tenth day of February, 1942, in respect of that employment or, if the employer did not then employ any such employee, the rate applicable to that particular employment or class of employment on that date.

“(2.) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this regulation shall render necessary a reduction of the remuneration payable to any employee while remaining in that particular employment, if that remuneration is greater than the remuneration so prescribed or fixed and was lawfully payable immediately prior to the commencement of this regulation.

“(3.) Where, immediately prior to the tenth day of February, 1942, it was the practice of an employer to pay to an employee in recognition of the special skill or other qualifications required for the satisfactory performance of the duties of the employment, an amount additional to the amount of remuneration prescribed, in respect of the employment, by law or by an award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority or by an industrial agreement, then, unless an Industrial Authority otherwise approves, the employer shall, in respect of that employment, notwithstanding any adjustments in the rate of remuneration in accordance with variations in the cost of living, continue to pay to the employee an amount equal to the additional amount so paid to the employee.

Industrial Authority not to alter rates of wages.

“16. An Industrial Authority or a Public Employment Authority shall not, after the commencement of this regulation, unless remuneration at the altered rate is, by virtue of regulation 17, regulation 18 or regulation 18a of these Regulations, permitted to be paid or received, include in any award, order or determination, or approve or enter into any industrial agreement which includes, any provision, or do any act or thing, altering, in respect of any employment, the rate of remuneration applicable to that employment.

Common rules not affected.

“17. Nothing in this Part shall prevent the Court from declaring a common rule under the provisions of the National Security (Industrial Peace) Regulations or from adding parties to any existing award of the Court.

 

Altered rates permissible in certain cases.

18.—(1.) Nothing in this Part shall prevent the payment or acceptance of remuneration at an altered rate where the alteration is made by an award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority or by a Public Employment Authority, or by an industrial agreement entered into by a Public Employment Authority or made with the approval of an Industrial Authority—

(a) if the plaint, reference or application in respect of which the alteration is made was lodged with or made to an Industrial Authority or Public Employment Authority prior to the tenth day of February, 1942, and the Minister certifies that he is satisfied that the making of the alteration has been delayed through no fault of the person or organization who or which lodged the plaint or made the reference or application;

(b) if the plaint, reference or application in respect of which the alteration is made relates to—

(i) the overtime rates, Sunday or holiday rates or holiday privileges of shift-workers whose conditions of employment are regulated by the Metal Trades Award (Serial No. 4655), the Consolidated Aircraft Industry Award (Serial No. 4589), the Agricultural Implement Making Employees Award (Serial No. 2902) or the Motor Body and Coach Building Interim Award (Serial No. 3974) made by the Court; or

(ii) the payment of water money to employees in the coal-mining industry; or

(c) for the purpose of adjusting rates of payment for piece-work, where the output of the employee is altered by reason of a variation in the nature of the material or commodity on which the employee works or by reason of a variation in the operation involving the piece-work, in order that (without increasing the earning power of the employee as at the tenth day of February, 1942) the earning power of the employee will not be reduced by reason of any such variation.

“(2.) Nothing in this Part shall prevent the payment or acceptance of remuneration at an altered rate where the alteration is made in accordance with the terms of an order made in pursuance of the provisions of the next two succeeding sub-regulations, by an award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority or by a Public Employment Authority, or by an industrial agreement entered into by a Public Employment Authority or made with the approval of an Industrial Authority.

“(3.) Where the matter of an alteration of a rate of remuneration comes before an Industrial Authority or a Public Employment Authority by a plaint, reference or application or by a proposal for an industrial agreement lodged with or made to that Authority, and that Authority has not, by any other provision of this Part, authority to do any act or thing to effect the alteration, that Authority shall, if after a preliminary hearing or examination of the matter the Authority is of opinion that the grounds on which the alteration is sought provide prima facie evidence that an alteration is necessary to remove an anomaly, or to compensate for a change of circumstances in the employment, submit—

(a) in the case of matters affecting members of the Australian Coal and Shale Employees’ Federation (other than those members who are excepted by the Commonwealth Coal Commissioner by order in pursuance of the Coal Production (War-time) Act 1944)—to the Commonwealth Coal Commissioner; and

 

(b) in the case of all other matters—to the Chief Judge of the Court,

a statement setting out—

(i) the grounds on which the alteration is sought;

(ii) the reasons for the opinion of the Authority; and

(iii) the general principles by which the Authority would be guided in removing any anomaly, or compensating for any such change of circumstances, which may be proved to the satisfaction of the Authority to exist.

“(4.) The Chief Judge of the Court or the Commonwealth Coal Commissioner, as the case may be, after consideration of the statement, may, if—

(a) he concurs in the opinion referred to in the last preceding sub-regulation; and

(b) he is satisfied that it is not opposed to the national interest so to do,

make an order authorizing the Industrial Authority or Public Employment Authority, on such conditions and subject to such limitations as the Chief Judge or the Commissioner, in his discretion, thinks fit, to proceed to hear and determine, or do any act or thing in relation to, the matter of the alteration.

“(5.) When considering any statement under the last preceding sub-regulation, the Chief Judge or the Commissioner, as the case may be, may consult with any Industrial Authority or Public Employment Authority or with any Public Instrumentality or Authority concerned with matters of national economic policy, or may otherwise inform himself in any manner that he thinks proper in the circumstances.

“(6.) The provisions of the last four preceding sub-regulations shall, in like manner as they apply to or in relation to a Public Employment Authority and so far as applicable, apply to or in relation to an employer to the extent to which he has in his employment any employee whose rate of remuneration is not prescribed by an award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority or by an industrial agreement, or is not fixed by a Public Employment Authority.

“(7.) Nothing in this Part shall prevent the payment or acceptance of remuneration at an altered rate where the alteration is made—

(a) in consequence of the promotion of the employee to a higher position;

(b) in consequence of the completion by the employee of an initial period of probation;

(c) for the purpose of granting a periodical or other increment to an employee who, under the terms and conditions of his employment, advances to a maximum rate of remuneration by periodical increments or whose salary range has been prescribed, by or in pursuance of any law, prior to the commencement of this regulation;

(d) for the purpose of maintaining the difference between the rate of remuneration prescribed, in respect of the employment, by law or by an award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority or by an industrial agreement, on the tenth day of February, 1942, or the date on which the award, order, determination or industrial agreement first came into operation (whichever is the later), and the rate at which remuneration in respect of the employment was, in accordance with the practice of the employer, paid immediately prior to the tenth day of February, 1942; or

 

(e) in consequence of the extension of the application of an award, order, determination or industrial agreement to persons not subject thereto but to whom the extension of the application of the award, order, determination or industrial agreement was in contemplation at the time when the award, order or determination was made or the industrial agreement was entered into.

“(8.) Nothing in this Part shall prevent the payment or acceptance of a bonus in respect of any employment in any establishment—

(a) where, immediately prior to the tenth day of February, 1942, it was customary for a bonus to be paid in respect of that employment, and the principles governing the determination of the amount of the bonus are the same as those which governed the determination of the bonus last paid before that date;

(b) with the approval of an Industrial Authority, where, immediately prior to the tenth day of February, 1942, it was customary for a bonus to be paid in respect of like employment in any similar establishment, and the principles governing the determination of the amount of the bonus are the same as those which governed the determination of any such bonus immediately prior to that date; or

(c) in which the Commonwealth carries on the production of ammunition or its components, provided the amount of the bonus is determined in accordance with a scheme which is approved by the Minister and, having regard to the interests of production in the establishment, is accepted by the Minister of State for Munitions as a satisfactory substitute for a system of payment by results in operation in the establishment on or after the tenth day of February, 1942.

Payment of altered rates to provide for cost of living adjustments.

“18a.—(1.) Nothing in this Part shall prevent the payment or acceptance of remuneration at an altered rate where the alteration is made—

(a) in pursuance of a provision of any law or any award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority or an industrial agreement or any act or thing done by a Public Employment Authority providing for the automatic adjustment of the rate of remuneration following a variation in the cost of living;

(b) by an Industrial Authority or a Public Employment Authority for the purpose of effecting an adjustment in accordance with a variation in the cost of living; or

(c) in any case where the rate of remuneration is not, in relation to the particular employment, prescribed by an award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority, or by an industrial agreement—for the purpose of effecting an adjustment in accordance with any variation in the cost of living, since that rate of remuneration first became payable in respect of that employment, as indicated by the ‘Court’ series of Retail Price Index Numbers published from time to time by, or at the direction of, the Court:

Provided that nothing in this paragraph shall be deemed to authorize the payment of an increased rate of remuneration in respect of any period prior to the commencement of this paragraph.

 

“(2.) Where—

(a) in pursuance of the law of a State, an Authority of the State has power to determine or declare a living wage or a basic wage for the State or any part of the State;

(b) that law provides that the rates of remuneration prescribed by any award, order or determination of an Industrial Authority, or by any industrial agreement, or fixed by a Public Employment Authority, shall be adjusted in consequence of the determination or declaration of the living wage or basic wage ;

(c) in pursuance of that law, the Authority of the State determines or declares a living wage or basic wage different from the living wage or basic wage in operation immediately prior to the making of the determination or declaration; and

(d) the difference between the new living wage or new basic wage and that which it replaces is due solely to actual variations in the cost of living,

then nothing in this Part shall prevent the payment or acceptance of remuneration at an altered rate where the alteration is made in consequence of that determination or declaration.”.

 

By Authority: L. F. Johnston, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.