Parliamentary Service Amendment Determination 2009/1
Explanatory statement
Circulated by authority of the Presiding Officers
Subsection 71(1) of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 (the Act) empowers the Presiding Officers, after consulting the Parliamentary Service Commissioner (the Commissioner), to make determinations. Those determinations may prescribe matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed, for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. This Determination was made by the Presiding Officers after they had consulted the Commissioner.
This Determination amends Parliamentary Service Determination 2003/2, which is the principal determination of terms and conditions of employment of Parliamentary Service employees.
Purpose and Scope of Determination
The purpose of this Determination is to amend clauses 3.1.3 and 3.1.4 of Parliamentary Service Determination 2003/2 which place restrictions on the engagement of persons who have received redundancy benefits from the Parliamentary Service or a non-Commonwealth employer in the 12 months prior to employment. These clauses have the same effect as equivalent provisions that were applicable in the Australian Public Service (APS) under the Public Service Commissioner's Directions 1999 before the Directions were amended earlier in 2009. The amended APS provisions:
- limit the application of the arrangements applying to the engagement in the Parliamentary Service of redundancy benefit recipients to persons who have received a redundancy benefit from an APS agency; and
- provide that the period of exclusion is to be linked to the period of the redundancy benefit received by an individual.
Clauses 3.1.3 and 3.1.4 currently apply to persons who seek employment in the Parliamentary Service after receiving a redundancy benefit from the Parliamentary Service or a non-APS Commonwealth employer. This Determination amends the current provisions to exclude non-APS Commonwealth employers from their coverage on the basis that non-APS Commonwealth employees typically did not have the option of seeking redeployment within the Parliamentary Service or the APS as an alternative to receiving a redundancy benefit from their employer. Amended clause 3.1.3 mirrors the new APS provisions (but does not replicate the APS inclusion of benefits received by employees of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission as there is little likelihood that affected MBDC employees will seek Parliamentary Service employment during the currency of their redundancy periods).
In keeping with the APS changes, the uniform 12 month exclusion period that currently applies to persons receiving a redundancy benefit is replaced by a period established by a formula that links the period of exclusion to the period of the redundancy benefit payment.
The revised arrangements will apply from the date this amendment comes into effect. Their coverage will include persons who received a redundancy benefit before this date.
There will continue to be flexibility for a Secretary to engage a redundancy benefit recipient in circumstances where the redundancy benefit period has not expired, subject, in some cases, to approval from, or consultation with, the Parliamentary Service Commissioner, prior to the engagement.
The financial impact of the proposed amendments is negligible.
Consultation
The Presiding Officers consulted with the Parliamentary Service Commissioner by correspondence about the proposed amendments and there was consultation between staff of the Parliamentary Service and the Australian Public Service Commission. As the changes are beneficial to people affected and reflect changes made to equivalent APS provisions, this was the only consultation undertaken,
Notes on clauses
Clause 1
Clause 1 sets out the name of this Determination.
Clause 2
Clause 2 provides that this Determination commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.
Clause 3
Clause 3 provides that Schedule 1 amends Parliamentary Service Determination 2003/2.
Schedule 1 Amendments
Item 1 Clause 3.1.3
Item 1 replaces clause 3.1.3 with a new clause 3.1.3.
Subclause 3.1.3(1) defines a redundancy benefit recipient as a person who has received a redundancy benefit from a parliamentary department or an APS Agency and the period of the redundancy benefit has not elapsed. The reference to ‘non-Parliamentary Service Commonwealth employment’ has been removed from this subclause.
Existing subclause 3.1.3(2) has been rewritten with the objective of making it clearer.
New subclause 3.1.3 (3) replaces existing subclauses 3.1.3 (3) to (6). It sets out the circumstances where a Secretary must either seek the approval of, or consult with, the Parliamentary Service Commissioner before engaging a redundancy benefit recipient. The only change of substance is to simplify the consultation requirements by providing that this must occur where a person is to be engaged for a specified term of more than 6 months, or for the duration of a specified task where it is estimated that the duration is likely to be more than 6 months.
Item 2 Clause 3.1.4
Item 2 replaces clause 3.1.4 with a new clause 3.1.4.
Subclause 3.1.4(1) has been redrafted to remove any references to the employer that paid the redundancy benefit, as this will now be covered in subclause 3.1.3(1). Subclause 3.1.4(1) now simply lists the types of payments that fall within the definition of a redundancy benefit.
Subclause 3.1.4(2) has been amended with the objective of making it more clear. Paragraph 3.1.4(2)(a) re-expresses the substance of existing subclause 3.1.4(2) as a list. Paragraph 3.1.4(2)(b) is added to clarify that payments made other than at the initiative of the employer are not redundancy payments.
New subclause 3.1.4(3) provides a definition of the redundancy benefit period for the purposes of clause 3.1.3 and includes the formula for calculating the period.
Item 3 Schedule 1, Dictionary
Item 3 inserts a definition of APS agency in the Dictionary to Parliamentary Service Determination 2003/2 and provides that the term has the meaning of Agency given by the Public Service Act 1999.
Item 4 Schedule 1, Dictionary
Item 4 removes the definition of Non-Parliamentary Service Commonwealth employer from the Dictionary to Parliamentary Service Determination 2003/2 as this term is no longer used in the Determination.