EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1982 NO 258
LONG SERVICE LEAVE (COMMONWEALTH EMPLOYEES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued with the Authority of the Public Service Board
Section 26 of the Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1976 provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing all matters which are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed, for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Sub-sections 8(1) and (2) of the Act provide that the regulations may provide that allowances of specified kinds are to be included in salary for the purposes of the Act, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.
Regulation 1 omits paragraph 4(1)(g) of the present Regulations. That provision included in salary an allowance payable under regulation 94A of the Public Service Regulations. It is removed as regulation 94A has itself been repealed.
Regulation 2 inserted new regulation 4DA into the Regulations. The effect of the new regulation is to include ‘experience allowance’ in salary for the purposes of the Act. Experience allowance is payable to tradesmen employed under the Australian National Railways Act 1917 in accordance with Part III of the Traffic Operating, workshops and Miscellaneous Grades (Australian National Railways) Award 1978. The allowance is presently at the rate of $3, $6 or $9 per week after 4, 6 or 8 years’ experience respectively as a tradesman with the Australian National Railways Commission. The Public Service Board agrees with the Commission that the allowance should be included in salary for long service leave purposes.
Regulation 3 and the schedule thereto amended all references to ‘furlough’ in the Regulations to ‘long service leave’: use of the former term was generally discontinued when the Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1976 replaced the Commonwealth Employees’ Furlough Act 1943.