Department of Attorney General and Justice - Corrective Services New South Wales v Public Service Association and Professional Officers' Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales (No 2) [2012] NSWIRComm 78

Industrial Relations Commission New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Department of Attorney General and Justice - Corrective Services New South Wales v Public Service Association and Professional Officers' Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales (No 2) [2012] NSWIRComm 78 Hearing dates: 18 July 2012 Decision date: 19 July 2012 Jurisdiction: Industrial Relations Commission Before: Boland J, President Decision: Recommendations made Catchwords: INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE - Changes to operational model of Grafton Correctional Centre - Considerable downsizing of staff - Staff transitional issues - Selection process - Voluntary redundancies - Availability of new Management Plan - Compensation issues - Relevance of personal circumstances - Meeting of Union delegates - Recommendations made Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Department of Attorney General and Justice - Corrective Services New South Wales (Notifier) Public Service Association and Professional Officers' Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales (Respondent) Representation: Mr J Murphy of counsel (Notifier) Mr S Little, Industrial Officer (Respondent) File Number(s): IRC 777 of 2012

STATEMENT AND RECOMMENDATION 1On 12 July 2012 the Department of Attorney General and Justice - Corrective Services New South Wales ("Department") notified the existence of an industrial dispute involving the Public Service Association and Professional Officers' Association Amalgamated Union of NSW ("PSA") and members of that Union in relation to "state wide industrial action in protest of the Government's decision to change the operational model for Grafton Correctional Centre". 2The dispute came before the Commission on the same day when the Commission made the following Recommendation: (1) that any stop work meetings tomorrow are limited to one hour; (2) arising out of the meetings all bans presently in place are lifted immediately upon the cessation of the meetings; (3) no further industrial action is to occur in relation to this dispute whilst the parties are engaged in conciliation before the Commission; (4) both parties commit to engaging in conciliation in good faith; (5) the PSA to advise the Commission of the outcome of the meetings by 3.00 pm tomorrow, 13 July; (6) on being advised that recommendations (1) to (4) hereof have been complied with the Commission will convene a compulsory conference of the parties at 10.00 am Monday 16 July. In the event the bans are not lifted the conference will not proceed; 3The Recommendation was complied with and accordingly, the Commission met with the parties in a compulsory conference on 16 July. At that Conference the PSA identified a number of issues relating to the changes at Grafton and how those changes affected prison officers. The Department addressed some of those issues, but others required further consideration. The parties were requested to consider their respective positions, meet to further discuss those positions and report back to the Commission on Wednesday 18 July 2012.