EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1988 No 357
Remuneration Tribunals (Members’ Fees and Allowances) Regulations (Amendment)
(Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Industrial Relations)
Section 13 of the Remuneration Tribunals Act 1973 (the Act) provides that:
“The Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.
Section 12F of the Act provides that a member of the Remuneration Tribunal (the Tribunal) be paid such fees and allowances as are prescribed; the Tribunal lacks the power to determine its own fees and allowances. The Chairman of the Tribunal, Mr Justice Mahoney, being a Judge of the Supreme Court of NSW is not paid a fee. The fees of the other two members, Messrs Mangan and Porter, are prescribed in the Remuneration Tribunals (Members’ Fees and Allowances) Regulations.
The practice has been to increase the annual rate of the fee by the same percentage amount and with the same date of effect as applied by the Tribunal itself in determining new rates for part-time office holders under its jurisdiction. The determinations of the Tribunal for the remuneration of public offices are adjusted by the National Wage Case increases.
The Tribunal has determined that the $10.00 National Wage Case decision of March 1987 and the second tier adjustment of 3% should apply on a pro-rata basis to part-time office-holders under its jurisdiction.
The $10.00 National Wage Case decision and the second tier adjustment of 3% would increase the annual fee on a pro-rata basis by, respectively, $78.00 (using the formula applied by the Tribunal) with effect from 10 March 1987, and $440.00 from 1 January 1988. This would raise the fee payable to members of the Tribunal from $14,601.00 to $15,119.00 per annum.
It is not necessary to amend the Regulations with respect to the members’ allowances as these are prescribed as the allowances payable to an officer of the Public Service and consequently do not require adjustment.
Regulation 4 of the Remuneration Tribunals (Members’ Fees and Allowances) Regulations provides for the payment of an annual fee at a specified rate to a member of the Remuneration Tribunal.
A regulation has been made to amend regulation 4 of the Remuneration Tribunals (Members’ Fees and Allowances) Regulations to reflect the increases in annual fees for members of the Tribunal.