Office of Legislative Drafting and Publishing to move to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel
11 May 2012, 11:27am
The legislative drafting and publishing functions in the Attorney-General?s Department will be transferred to OPC. The date of the transfer is anticipated to be 1 July 2012, subject to the passage of enabling legislation and other arrangements between the Attorney-General?s Department and OPC being in place.
The CPSU will meet with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel and OLDP
management next Thursday to discuss employment arrangements for AGD staff
affected by the Machinery of Government change.
What is a Machinery of Government (MoG) change?
MoG changes occur regularly in the APS. Under the Public Service Act (PS Act)
employees can be compulsorily transferred between agencies. These generally
occur as a result of Machinery of Government (MoG) changes. Under the PS Act,
affected employees cannot lodge a review of action as the transfer is deemed a
non ‘reviewable’ action. As the Australian Public Service is effectively one
employer the transmission of business provisions under the Workplace Relations
Act 1996 do not apply.
What are the areas where a MoG change may impact on staff?
The most pressing concern for affected staff is a difference in pay and
conditions resulting from the two enterprise agreements covering staff from OLDP
and OPC. Under the Public Service Act, a Section 24 Determination can be used to
protect conditions for staff who are MoGed.
With your support the CPSU will be insisting that the Government issue a
determination to protect your conditions. The CPSU will then be seeking to work
with OPC to create a consistent pay and conditions structure for all employees
into the future.
Leave balances: The must be no disadvantage to employees when
annual and personal leave balances are transferred. Moving forward the
difference in personal leave accrual will need to be resolved as OLDP staff
accrue 22 days per annum and OPC staff accrue only 18.
Pay: The differences between the AGD and the OPC EA pay tables
must be addressed to ensure staff are not disadvantaged. Currently OPC staff
are paid at a higher rate at every classification level.
But pay and conditions are not the only concerns; there are a number of other
areas where a MoG change can impact on employees, including:
Where a recruitment or selection process is underway
Where underperformance action, or other actions under the PS Act are
underway
Issues around what happens with existing approved leave arrangements
Questions over the status of employees on leave when MoG changes are
introduced
Impact on Higher Duties arrangements.
Determining staff roles to establish which staff are in fact MoG
affected
Differences in workplace cultures and management practices
