EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 211
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, inter alia, 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.
Upon the commencement of section 19 of the Public Service Reform Act 1984, sub-section 29C(2) of the Act will provide, inter alia, that a declaration of an office to be a part-time office shall not specify hours of attendance that are greater than the hours of attendance prescribed by the regulations for the purpose of paragraph 29C(2)(a) or less than the hours of attendance prescribed by the regulations for the purpose of paragraph 29C(2)(b).
Regulation 2 inserts in the Public Service Regulations a new regulation 9 to prescribe the maximum and minimum hours of attendance for offices declared to be part-time offices. The maximum hours of attendance are to be 30 hours per week and the minimum hours of attendance are to be 15 hours per week.
Part IV of the Act provides a scheme whereby officers of the Service can obtain employment in other areas of public employment (‘eligible public employment’), for example statutory authorities not staffed under the Act, whilst retaining rights to return to their employment in the Service.
At present this scheme only operates where the eligible public employment is full-time. Sub-section 95(2) of the Public Service Reform Act 1984 amends section 87 of the Act to extend the definition of ‘employment’ to include part-time employment. Under the amended definition, ‘employment’ will mean -
(a) employment in a full-time capacity; or
(b) employment in a part-time capacity where -
(i) the person employed does not also perform duties in the Service;
(ii) the number of ordinary hours of duty per week applicable to the person in respect of the employment is greater than the number of hours prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this sub-paragraph; and
(iii) the employment is not employment of a kind that the Board has declared, in writing, to be non-qualifying part-time employment for the purposes of this sub-paragraph.
Regulation 2 inserts in the Public Service Regulations a new regulation 10 which prescribes 14 59/60th as the number of hours for the purposes of sub-paragraph (b)(ii) of the definition of ‘employment’. Thus employment for 15 hours per week in eligible public employment will be sufficient to attract the operation of the officers’ mobility provisions of Part IV of the Act. This is the same minimum number of hours that will be required for officers working part-time in the Service.
Regulation 1 provides for the regulations to come into operation on the day on which section 19 of the Public Service Reform Act comes into operation. 1 September has been fixed as the day upon which various provisions including section 19 of the Public Service Reform Act 1984 relating to part-time employment come into operation.