EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1983 NO 219
PUBLIC SERVICE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued with the authority of the Public Service Board
Sub-section 97(1) of the Public Service Act 1922 (‘the Act’) provides that the Public Service Board may, with the approval of the Governor-General, 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.
These statutory rules amend regulations 46A and 137 of the Public Service Regulations, which deal respectively with the recreation leave credits of permanent officers who were formerly temporary employees, and recreation leave for temporary employees themselves.
The amendments make the regulations consistent with clause 8 of Public Service Arbitrator’s Determination No. 32 of 1956, reflecting amendments made to that Determination by Determination No. 584 on 10 August 1978. Prior to that date, recreation leave credits for temporary employees accrued each year on the anniversary of the date of their employment; the determination replaced this by a common accrual date of 1 January, similar to the arrangements that have operated since 1966 in respect of permanent officers.
Under section 22 of the Public Service Arbitration Act 1920, the Arbitrator may make a determination which is not in accord with a law of the Commonwealth. Determination No. 584 has thus overridden regulations 46A and 137, to the extent there is inconsistency, since 10 August 1978.
Regulation 1 of the statutory rules amended regulation 46A to provide that a temporary employee who is appointed as an officer in a particular year will be given pro rata recreation leave credits on the next 1 January which reflect the length of his temporary and permanent service during the year.
Regulation 2 amended regulation 137 to provide that a temporary employee will normally be granted on 1 January each year a recreation leave credit of a number of days equal to the number of days ordinarily worked by that person during a 4 week period in the previous year. The quantum of recreation leave is less where significant amounts of leave without pay are taken (for reasons other than illness) and greater for staff employed at lighthouses. Regulation 2 also made a number of machinery amendments to regulation 137.