Lucyna Zatorski v State Rail Authority of South Australia [1983] FCA 208
Federal Court of Australia
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CATCHWORDS
Industrial law - claim for amount in respect of position
described as "ticket clerk" - appellant not formally engaged
or appointed as "ticket clerk" - whether the duties which
the appellant was employed to perform were those of a "ticket
clerk" - relationship of classifications of employment in
the award to classifications adopted by the employer pursuant
to statute.
Conciliation & Arbitration Act 1904 (Cwth) s.123.
Railways Salaried Cfficers Award 1960 (Cwth)
LUCYNA ZATORSKI v. THE STATE RATLWAY AUTHORITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
S.A. No. 17 of 1983
Smithers, Northrop & Morling JJ.
23 August 1983
Melbourne.
IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA )
)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA DISTRICT REGISTRY ) No. S.A. 17 of 1983
)
INDUSTRIAL DIVISION
BETWEEN : LUCYNA ZATORSKI
Appellant
AND: THE STATE RATLWAY
AUTHORITY OF SOUTH
AUSTRALIA
Respondent
Judges Making Order: Smithers, Northrop and Morling JJ.
Date of Order: 23 August 1983
Where Made: Melbourne.
ORDER
THE ORDER OF THE COURT IS THAT:
The appeal be dismissed.
co
IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
SOUTH AUSTRALIA DISTRICT REGISTRY No. SA 17 cf 1983
ee ee
INDUSTRIAL DIVISION
BETWEEN: LUCYNA ZATORSKI
Appellant
AND: THE STATE RAITLWAY
AUTHORITY OF SOUTH
AUSTRALIA
Respondent
CORAM: Smithers, Northrop and Morling JJ.
23 August 1983
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
SMITHERS AND MCRLING JJ.: This 1s an appeal from a
decision of a judge of this court dismissing an
application made under s.123 of the Conciliation and
Arbitration Act 1904, as amended, by Mrs Zatorsk1 ("the
appellant"). The appellant alleges that she was no
paid wages due to her whilst she wes employed by th
Dp
respondent during the period from Ist July 1973 to 2%
February 12978.
When the application first came before the
learned trial judge he dismissed it on a preliminary
point of law. An eppeal from that decision to the Full
Court succeeded - see Zatorski v South Australian
Railways Commissioner and Anor. (1982) 41 A.L.R. 655.
The matter was sent back to the trial judge for the
hearing to be concluded. When the matter again came
before his Honour further evidence was tendered and his
Honour again dismissed the application. The present
appeal is against the second dismissal of the
application.
The appellant's claam was that during the
relevant period she was entitled to be paid salary at
the rate prescribed by the- Railways Salaried Officer
Award, 1960 ("the Award"). The rate to which she
claimed to be entitied was that payable to an adult
female officer occupying a position in the
classification of ticket clerk.
Clause 9(ii) of the Award provided, in part, as
follows:
"(ii) Adult female officers occupying
positions in the classifications
herein and employed in the South
Australian Railways shall be paid
at the rate of the salary
prescribed in the following table:
5. Ticket Clerk ... "
3.
In support of her claim the appellant relied
upon her work history and the duties she performed for
the respondent. She conceded that she had not been
formally appointed as a ticket clerk. But she claimed
that was not decisive of her application and in this
respect she relied upon the decision of the Full Court
to which we have just referred. The Full Court said:
"It is not necessarily an answer to this claim that she
is unable to show that she was formally appointed to a
position of ticket clerk." 41 A.L.R. at 662.
The Solicitor-General for South Australia, who
appeared for the respondent, submitted that in order for
her to succeed in her claim it was necessary for the
appellant to show that she occupied the position of
ticket clerk as classified in the Award. He
acknowledged that the appellant had established
employment by the respondent as a ticket agent but said
that that employment was outside the ambit of the Award.
He submitted that the position of ticket clerk and
ticket agent were separate and distinct and that the
appellant had not established that she occupied the
position of ticket clerk because the facts showed that
she' occupied the position of ticket agent.
It is not in issue that during the relevant
period the appellant was an employee of the State
Transport Authority of South Australia or its statutory
predecessors. A concession to this effect was made by
the respondent at the trial.
In 1975 an agreement was made between the
Commonwealth and the State of South Australia providing
for the Australian National Railways Commission
("the Commission") to take over, as from lst March 1978,
certain railways previously conducted by the respondent.
After the takeover the appellant became an employee of
the Commission. The provisions effecting the transfer
of employees in the service of the South Australian
Railways to the Commission are referred to at 41 A.L.R.
p.657 and it is unnecessary for the purposes of this
decision to make further reference to them. After
serving for some time as an employee of the Commission
the appellant brought proceedings against 1t claiming
that she was entitled to be, but had not been, paid at
the rate prescribed by an award which may be broadly
described as the successor to the Railways Salaried
Officers Award. That claim failed - see Australian
National Railways Commission v Zatorsk1 (1980) 49 F.L.R.
53.
In order to understand the rival contentions of
the parties we must state the facts surrounding her
employment during the relevant pericd. A statement of
5.
agreed facts was tendered in the proceedings at the
trial and although oral evidence was also tendered it
did not alter the essential facts as stated in the
agreed statement.
In October 1949 the applicant was employed by
the South Australian Railways as a female porter. In
1952 she was classified as a ticket clerk and was
employed at the Adelaide Station selling tickets. She
resigned on 1 April 1953 because of the impending birth
of her child, but on 13 July 1953 the Railways
Commissioner approved the withdrawal of her resignation.
She resumed duties as a female porter at Adelaide
Station performing various duties including ticket
collection, noting train arrivals and departures and
assisting in the telegraph office. She continued in
this employment until November 1966.
She then requested that she be appointed as
ticket agent at Hawthorn Station, which was near her
home, to enable her to care for her husband and her
young child. Her husband was then unwell. She was
offered the position as ticket agent on the condition
that she resign as an employee of the South Australian
Railways. This she did, and she was appointed a ticket
agent at Hawthorn Station on 21 November 1966.
om oe
6.
Until October 1972, ticket agents were
remunerated on a commission basis, with a guaranteed
minimum payment. The minimum payment was adjusted in
line with award wage variations. Over a period of time
the remuneration paid to ticket agents included paid
annual, sick and gazetted leave. Historically tacket
agents were independent contractors but with the passage
of time their status changed to that of employees. As
we have already observed, it was conceded by the
respondent that the appellant was an employee at all
relevant times.
On 29 July 1976 the appellant was advised by
her employer that she had been regraded to the position
of Station Assistant and that thereafter she would be
paid the appropriate rate of pay applicable to Porter
Class 3 in the Railways Traffic Permanent Way and
Signalling Wages Staff Award 1960 and would be covered
by that award. The appellant did not respond to this
advice, taking the view that there was no need for her
to do so.
From 1 August 1976 onwards the remuneration
paid to ticket agents was at the same hourly rate as the
remuneration of a Porter Class 3, and the conditions of
that award were applied to ticket agents. But the
classification of ticket agent itself did not appear in
any award.
7.
On 4 April 1977 the appellant became Station
Assistant at Commercial Road Station Port Adelaide
following the closure of the Hawthorn Station. On 22
September 1977 she became Station Assistant at Marion
Station, where she continued to work until she became an
employee of the Australian National Railways Commission.
Initially ticket agents sold tickets from
commercial premises, such as shops, near railway
stations. But for many years ticket agents have worked
on railway station premises. Ticket agents, other than
relieving ticket agents, have always been engaged to
work at a particular station. The appellant was not
employed as a relieving ticket agent.
Although there was no specification of the
@Guties of a ticket clerk in the Award, female ticket
clerks were always required to work the full hours
provided by the Award, i.e. 40 hours in an ordinary
week. They could have always been required to work
either at suburban railway stations or at the Adelaide
Station.
. The duties of ticket agents were substantially
the same as the duties of female ticket clerks employed
at suburban stations. But there were some differences.
As we have already observed, it was a term of their
8.
employment that ticket agents were required to work at
one station only. They were required to work only 36
hours per week not 40 as in the case of ticket clerks.
When a ticket clerk worked at Adelaide Station she was
required to collect moneys from guards and porters who
had sold tickets on trains. This was no part of the
work of any ticket agent. Moreover, no doubt because of
the differences in the duties that they performed, there
were some minor differences in the clerical work
required to be performed by ticket clerks and ticket
agents.
A great deal of evidence was tendered at the
trial for the purpose of demonstrating the different
manner in which ticket agents and ticket clerks had been
dealt with in earlier awards and in proceedings before
the Arbitration Commission. This evidence clearly
established that the occupation of ticket clerk was of
long standing and that it differed from that of ticket
agent.
In our opinion a consideration of the facts to
which we have already referred, all of which were not in
contest, leads to the inevitable result that the appeal
cannot succeed. On any view of the facts they establish
that the duties of a ticket agent were not the same as
those 'of a ticket clerk. It is true that there was a
considerable correspondence between the duties of the
two occupations. But the differences were substantial.
A job requiring a person to travel to any suburban
railway station is significantly different from a job to
which no such requirement is attached. Indeed, one
reason why the appellant became a ticket agent in 1966
was that she desired to work at Hawthorn Station (and
perhaps nowhere else) so she could more easily discharge
her domestic responsibilities. We have no doubt that
the appellant herself regarded her job as ticket agent
at Hawthorn Station as a different job from that
performed by female ticket clerks. Moreover the
difference in the hours of work of ticket agents and
ticket clerks was not inconsiderable.
As we are of the opinion that between 1 July
1973 and 1 March 1978 the appellant was not, in fact,
performing the duties of a person occupying the position
in the classification of Ticket Clerk in the State
Salaried Officers Award and as there 1s nothing else to
which the appellant can point as showing that she was
formally or informally appointed to such a position, her
claim must fail. This conclusion makes it unnecessary
for,us to consider the Solicitor~General's argument that
even if the appellant had been able to establish that
during the relevant period she performed all the work of
a person occupying the position of a ticket clerk, that
10.
would not have established that she had been appointed
as a ticket clerk.
We do not think that the rejection of the
appellant's application leads to a surprising or unfair
result. This is not a case in which an employer has
unfairly obtained the services of an employee and has
underpaid her by placing an incorrect appellation on her
job so as to avoid paying her the amount to which she
would have been entitled had the correct appellation
been adopted. Indeed, it would have been surprising if
the repondent had agreed to pay her the same salary as a
ticket clerk, notwithstanding that she could not have
been called upon to -work in the itinerant fashion in
which a ticket clerk might be called upon to work and
notwithstanding that she was required to work a lesser
number of hours per week.
Mr Williams 0.C., leading counsel for the
appellant, criticised the reasoning by which the learned
trial judge arrived at his decision. In particular, he
submitted that his Honour's judgment proceeded upon the
erroneous assumption that one of the issues in the case
was, whether the appellant was an employee of the
respondent during the relevant period. His Honour's
judgment does appear to proceed upon this basis, not-
withstanding that an express concession was made by
counsel for the respondent that the appellant was an
employee at the relevant time. But it 1s clear from his
Honour's judgment that he rejected the application on
the asumption that the appellant was an employee. In
other words, his Honour's erroneous belief that the
question of employment was an issue in the case did not
affect his decision. In any event, we have decided the
appeal on our own consideration of the facts, and on the
basis of the concession that the appellant was an
employee of the respondent at the relevant time.
Mr Williams also submitted that his Honour's
decision was arrived at in part by reference to a
dichotomy which his Honour perceived as existing between
"salaried officers and employees". Indeed, his Honour
did say that the appellant had not demonstrated that she
was employed as a salaried officer or as an officer
within the meaning of those expressions as uséd in the
Award, and he seems to have treated this matter as
sufficient in itself to defeat the application. It was
claimed that this approach to the appellant's claim is
inconsistent with the reasons given by the Full Court,
reported at 41 A.L.R. 655. Whether this is so or not
need not be determined in order to decide the appeal
because his Honour went on in his judgment to hold that
the appellant had not demonstrated that she was an
employee of the respondent in the grade or occupation of
12.
a ticket clerk as referred to in the Award. Our own
independent examination of the facts leads us to the
same conclusion.
In the result the appeal must be dismissed.
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IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
SOUTH AUSTRALIA DISTRICT REGISTRY S.A. No. 17 of 1983
ee
INDUSTRIAL DIVISTON
ON APPEAL FROM THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
BETWEEN:
LUCYNA YZATORSKI Appellant
(Applicant)
and
THE STATE TRANSPORT AUTHORITY Respordent
(Respondenc)
CORAM: Smithers, Northrop and Morling JJ.
DATE: 23 August 1983
PLACE: Melbourne.
NORTHROP J. REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
In October 1978 Mrs. Lucyna Zatorski, "the
t
" appellant", commenced proceedings in the Federal Court
against the State Transport Authority of South Australia,
"the respondent", under s.123 of the Conciliation and
Arbitration Act 1904. By her application the appeljJent
sought an order for the recovery of the balance of monies st
claimed due to her under the Railways Salaried Officers Averd
1960, "the State Salaried Officers Award". In ordec to
succeed she had to establish that she was "entitled to the
benefit of an Award", s.123 of the Conciliation and
Arbitration Act, namely the State Salaried Officers' Award.
The sole issue raised for decision by the Court is whether
she was entitled to the benefit of that Award. I£ she was so
entitled, the parties have reached agreement as to the
quantum of the amount of the payment to which she is
entitled.
The history of the application, and a _ related
application, is ascertained by a reference to ZYatorski v.
Australian National Railways Commission (1980) 42 F.L.R. 244,
"the No. 1 Case", Australian National Railways Commission v.
Zatorski (1980) 49 F.L.R. 244, "the No. 2 Case", and Zatorski
v. South Australian Railways Commissioner (1982) 41 A.L.R.
655, "the No. 3 Case". Following the judgment in the No. 3
case, the application came on for hearing before the Court
constituted by a single Judge and on 26 April 1983 the Court
so constituted found that the appellant was not entitled to
the benefit of the State Salaried Officers Award and ordered
_ that the application be dismissed. The appellant appeals
against that order.
There is no substantial dispute as to the facts
upon which the application is made. Those facts are
contained in a statement of agreed facts tendered by the
parties to the trial Judge. Reference will be made to the
relevant facts later. Oral evidence given at the trial
tended to support the facts set out in the statement. In
addition, much written material was tendered and referred to
at the hearing of the application but it is not necessary to
refer in detail to that material. Likewise, the State
legislation constituting the respondent and its predecessors
including the South Australian Railways Commissioner, need
not be referred to in detail. In particular, nothing further
need be said about the provisions of the relevant State Acts
prescribing the method by which the respondent is empowered
to appoint employees, whether officers or employees,
contained in ss.26-29 of the Railways Act 1936-1975 (S.A.)
and the definitions of "railway service" or "service" and
"permanent" contained in s.5 of that Act, nor to the powers
contained in s.132 of that Act, nor to the regulations made
thereunder. At all relevant times, similar provisions
operated with respect to the respondent and its predecessors.
It is not necessary to relate the history of those statutory
bodies and for present purposes the word "respondent" is used
to include the statutory bodies previously conducting
railways in South Australia.
The provisions of s.25 of the Railways Act (S.A.),
however, should be set out. Kt all relevant times that
section provided:
"25.(1) The Authority may appoint such
officers and employees as it considers
necessary for the purposes of this Act, and
from time to time dismiss them.
(2) Every officer and employee shall
hold his office during the pieasure cf the
Authority.
(3) The Authority shall pay such
salaries, wages, and allowances to the
officers and employees as it prescribes by
regulation, and as Parliament appropriates for
the purpose.
(4) All appointments to permanent
offices in the railway service shal] be made
in manner mentioned in the following
provisions of this Act."
It is interesting to note the equivalent section as it was
contained in the South Australian Railways Commissioners Act
1887:
"All appointments to the Railway Service shall
be made by, and tenable during the pleasure
of, the Commissioners. The Commissioners may
appoint such and as many officers and employes
as they think fit, and from time to time
dismiss them, and may increase or diminish the
number of officers. The Commissioners shall
pay such salaries, wages, and allowances to
the officers and employes as they may by
regulations prescribe and as Parliament may
appropriate for the purpose. All appointments
to permanent offices in the Railway Service
shall be made in manner hereinafter
mentioned."
The respondent is a statutory body. One of the
powers conferred upon it by the Railways Act (S.A.) is to
"appoint such officers and employees as it considers
necessary for the purposes of this Act". officers and
employees so appointed come within the category of servants
in the phrase "master and servant" and are to be contrasted
with independent contractors who could be appointed pursuant
to the power to enter into contracts conferred upon the
respondent by s.12 Railways Act (S.A.). In the No. 3 Case,
at p.661 the Full Court considered the phrase "formally
appointed" and in particular the word ""appoint". The Full
Court does not make clear the context in which, for the
purposes of that case, the word "appoint" appears. The only
relevant place in which the word "appoint" does appear is in
s.25 of the Railways Act (S.A.). In that context the word
"appoint" in sub-section (1) must mean engage under a
contract of employment, while in sub-section (4) the word
"appointment", except in the sense of a first appointment as
a servant under sub-section (1), indicates a direction to an
officer to occupy a position or office in the classification
structure of the railway service of the respondent and that
appointment may result from a promotion or a transfer or even
a demotion.
In the absence of any contract of employment with
the respondent, on no view could it be said that the
appellant is entitled to the benefit of the State Salaried
Officers Award. In the normal course of events one would
expect to find an appointment by the respondent of a person
as an officer or an employee evidenced by writing. In the
present case the difficulty arises from the fact that
although between 1952 and 1966 the appellant was an officer
or an employee, in the sense of being a servant, of the
respondent, the appellant in November 1966 resigned from her
position as an employee of the respondent to enable her to be
appointed as a ticket agent at Hawthorn station, which was
nearer to her home, to enable her to care for her husband,
who was unwell, and her young son. Initially, upon her
resignation as a servant of the respondent, she was appointed
to the position of ticket agent at Hawthorn and it is
conceded that she occupied that position as an independent
contractor and not as an officer or employee, in the sense of
being a servant of the respondent. The parties have agreed
that by reason of unspecified facts, imperceptibly and at a
time which could not be specified, the appellant had become a
servant of the respondent by the beginning of the year 1973.
It is because of this agreement between the parties and the
absence of other facts before the Court that the appellant
concedes that the respondent did not formally appoint her an
officer or employee. The absence of proof of those facts
from which the contract of master and servant arises gives
rise to some of the difficulties in the present case. Under
-normal circumstances nice questions would arise as to whether
there can be an implied appointment by the respondent of a
person as an officer or an employee under s.25 Railways Act
(S.A.), but because of the agreement between the parties it
is not necessary to decide that question in the present case.
Nor is it necessary to express any opinion of the nature of a
e
"service" whether a "railway service", a 'public service", a
"teaching service" or any other service created under a
Commonwealth or State Act and nothing in these reasons is to
be taken as expressing an opinion on those matters.
The State Salaried Officers Award is an award made
by the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. It is an
award binding on the respondent and a number of other
statutory bodies employing persons in railway services in
Victoria and Tasmania with respect to persons employed, in
the sense of servants, being members of named organizations,
including the organization of which the appellant is a
member, "in grades or occupations for which salaries are
herein prescribed"; see sub-clause 2(a) of the Award.
Clause 7 of the Award 1s headed "Salaries of Adult Male
Officers" and each sub-clause thereof lists a number of
offices or positions based on the classification structures
within the different railway services. Sub-clauses 7(a) and
7(c) prescribe the annual salaries payable to persons
occupying positions listed with respect to services in
Victoria. Sub-clause 7(b) prescribes the annual salaries
payable to persons occupying positions listed with respect to
the service in South Australia. Sub-clause 7(d) prescribes
the annual salaries payable to persons occupying positions
listed with respect to the service in Tasmania. Clause 9 is
headed "Salaries of Adult Female Officers" and each
sub-clause thereof lists a number of offices or positions
based on the classification structures within the different
railway services. Sub-clause 9(a)(1) prescribes the annual
salaries payable to persons occupying positions listed with
respect to the service in Victoria. Sub-clause 9(a)(1ii)
prescribes the annual salaries payable to persons occupying
positions listed with respect to the service in Tasmania.
Sub-clause 9(a)(2i) provides:
"(Cii) Adult female officers occupying
positions in the classifications provided
herein and employed in the South Australian
Railways shall be paid at the rate of the
salary prescribed in the following, table: ..."
Five separate classifications are then listed, some of which
have a number of divisions with provision for annual
increments. One of the classifications listed is "ticket
clerk".
It must be noted that the State Salaried Officers
Award does not prescribe the number of positions within a
classification. That is a matter for the employer to
determine. The Award does not prescribe what duties are to
be performed by a person occupying a position within a
classification. That is a matter for the employer to
determine. The Award takes the bare skeleton of a
Classification structure and prescribes annual salaries
payable to persons who occupy positions within a
Classification in that classification scructure. The Award
ee we ee ee gee
is not concerned with posicions or duties. In this regard it
should be noted that under the Railways Act (S.A.) it is the
respondent who is empowered to make appointments to permanent
offices in the railway service in South Australia;
sub-section 25(4). By definition a permanent office means an
office remunerated by an annual salary fixed and determined
by regulations under the Railways Act (S.A.). The effect of
the State Salaried Officers Award is to prescribe annual
salaries for the persons occupying those offices and if there
is any inconsistency between the regulations and the Award,
the provisions of the Award prevail.
The State Salaried Officers Award contains a number
of clauses having application generally with respect to all
parties bound by the Award. These are included in Part V1l
of the Award, being clauses 16-57 inclusive. By way of
illustration, clause 16 provides that Part Vlil applies "to
officers occupying posiitions in the grade or class for which
salaries are heretofore prescribed ...". Clause 17 provides
for a 40-hour week, while other clauses make provision for
shift work and other matters commonly found in awards of the
Commission. It is interesting to note that the Award makes
no provision relating to the manner in which persons are to
be appointed to occupy positions in a classification and no
provision relating to the termination of employment of
persons occupying those positions. Presumably, in the
railway service in South Australia, officers are to be
- 10-
appointed and dismissed by the respondent pursuant to powers
conferred by s.25 of the Railways Act (S.A.).
Finally, sub-clause 60(a) of the Award provides:
"In this Award (unless inconsistent with the
context) -
'officer' means any person employed by the
respondents in any of the callings for which
rates of pay are prescribed herein."
This definition causes difficulties. In the Award, rates of
pay are not prescribed with respect to callings but with
respect to positions in specified classifications. Persons
carrying on different callings may each occupy positions
within the one classification. They become entitled to the
prescribed salary by reason of occupying a position in a
classification, not by reason of their calling.
In passing, it should be noted that alongside the
State Salaried Officers Award, there exists the Railways
Traffic Permanent Way and Signalling Wages Staff Award 1960,
"che State Traffic etc., Award". The State Traffic etc.,
' Award prescribes wages and conditions of employment with
respect to employees in occupations within railway services
in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. It prescribes
weekly rates of pay for those employees as distinct from
annual salaries.
-~1ll-
In the present case it is conceded that at no stage
did the respondent "formally appoint" the appellant to a
position within the classification of ticket clerk appearing
in sub-clause 9(a)(ii) of the State Salaried Officers Award.
There is no material before the Court to show what was meant
by the phrase "formal appointment", but in all probability it
refers to an appointment to an office under sub-section 25(4)
Railways Act (S.A.). In Case No.'3, the Full Court by order
remitted the appellant's application to the trial Judge to
enable him to determine whether, during the relevant period,
the appellant was "occupying a position in the classification
of ticket clerk".
The appellant sought to establish her claim by
reference to her work history, the duties she performed as a
ticket agent and the duties performed by persons who had been
appointed to positions within the classification of ticket
clerk. Even if that approach is permissible, on the material
before the Court, the appellant's claim must fail.
The agreed facts show that the duties performed by
a person occupying a position within the classification of
ticket clerk, although similar in many respects to the duties
performed by the appellant, were substantially different to
the nature of the duties carried out by the appellant in her
position of ticket agent. There is a difference in name
between ticket agent and ticket clerk, assuming for the
Pa
—~12-
moment that the phrase "ticket clerk" is descriptive of
@uties as distinct from the name given to a classification.
Under the State Salaried Officers Award, ticket clerks work a
40-hour week and while at Adelaide Station were required to
do shift work. The appellant did not work a 40-hour week.
At the most she worked a 36-hour week, later reduced to a
31-hour week. She did not do shift work. Ticket clerks
could be directed to work at Adelaide Station where, in
addition to doing shift work, they were required to perform
additional duties not performed at suburban stations. The
appellant could not be 'directed to work at Adelaide Station.
She worked only at those suburban stations at which she
agreed to work. All these facts show a_ substantial
difference between the duties performed by a person occupying
a position in the classification of ticket clerk and the
duties performed by the appellant in her position of ticket
agent.
This conclusion is consistent with the action taken
by the parties during the relevant period. At all material
times the parties treated the appellant as being a ticket
agent and not a ticket clerk. She was considered to be award
free. Problems arose concerning the rates of pay she should
receive. In 1976 an arrangement was made between the
.
respondent and the organization of which the appellant was a
member that ticket agents employed by the respondent,
including the appellant, should be paid wages based upon the
- 13 -
wages payable to a Porter, Class 3, as prescribed from time
to time by the State Railways Traffic etc., Award. Even
though that arrangement may have had no legal effect, it was
acted upon by the respondent and the appellant. By letter
dated 29 July 1976 the respondent notified the appellant of
the new arrangements as follows:
"MRS. L. ZATORSKI,
In accordance with advice received from the
Acting Secretary, please note as from and
including Monday, 2nd August, 1976, you will
be regraded to the position of Station
Assistant.
Accordingly you will be paid the appropriate
rate of pay applicable to Porter, Class 3, and
will be covered by the Railways Traffic etc.,
Award.
L. ZATORSKI,
TICKET AGENT,
(I. L. MOORE)
ACTING SUPERINTENDENT
HAWTHORN."
Thereafter the respondent paid the appellant wages in
accordance with the regrading and un accordance with
the arrangement made with the organization. That position
*" continued until the appellant ceased her employment with the
respondent, as appears in Case No. 2.
In the result the appeal should be dismissed.
nt
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Speen SoC Se
NOR SRST a a NL A ST CER AT TE
T certify that the Pucteen C13)
preceding pages are a true copy of the
Reasons for Judgment berein of the
Honourable Mr. Justies Noctheop
'Associate
Dated: '4 August 1453
Br SI Ek