Nurses' (Department of Ageing, Disability & Home Care) (State) Award 2005

 

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMISSION OF NEW SOUTH WALES

 

Application by Public Employment Office.

 

(No. IRC 374 of 2006)

 

 

VARIATION

 

1.          Insert in clause 3, General Conditions of Employment of the award published 8 July 2005 (Vol. 352 I.G. 246) the following new paragraph:

 

Casuals shall also receive the following entitlements in accordance with the Crown Employees (Public Service Conditions of Employment) Reviewed Award 2006:

 

(a)        Unpaid parental leave in accordance with Clause 12 (iv)(d);

 

(b)        Personal Carers' entitlement in accordance with Clause 12 (v); and

 

(c)        Bereavement entitlement in accordance with Clause 12 (vi).

 

This entitlement is also set out at Clause 15 Part II of this Award."

 

2.          Insert after subclause (vii) in clause 15 Permanent Part-time and Casual Employees in Part II - Casual Employees, the following new paragraph:

 

(viii)     Casual employees are entitled to unpaid parental leave under Chapter 2, Part 4, Division 1, section 54, Entitlement to Unpaid Parental Leave, in accordance with the Industrial Relations Act 1996. The following provisions shall also apply in addition to those set out in the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW).

 

(a)        The Department Head must not fail to re-engage a regular casual employee (see section 53(2) of the Act) because:

 

(A)       the employee or employee's spouse is pregnant; or

 

(B)       the employee is or has been immediately absent on parental leave.

 

The rights of an employer in relation to engagement and re-engagement of casual employees are not affected, other than in accordance with this clause.

 

(ix)       Personal Carers entitlement for casual employees

 

(a)        Casual employees are entitled to not be available to attend work, or to leave work if they need to care for a family member described in (iii) below who is sick and requires care and support, or who requires care due to an unexpected emergency, or the birth of a child. This entitlement is subject to the evidentiary requirements set out below in (d), and the notice requirements set out in (e).

 

(b)       The Department Head and the casual employee shall agree on the period for which the employee will be entitled to not be available to attend work.  In the absence of agreement, the employee is entitled to not be available to attend work for up to 48 hours (i.e. two days) per occasion.  The casual employee is not entitled to any payment for the period of non-attendance.

 

(c)        A Department Head must not fail to re-engage a casual employee because the employee accessed the entitlements provided for in this clause. The rights of an employer to engage or not to engage a casual employee are otherwise not affected.

 

(d)       The casual employee shall, if required,

 

(A)       establish either by production of a medical certificate or statutory declaration, the illness of the person concerned and that the illness is such as to require care by another person, or

 

(B)       establish by production of documentation acceptable to the employer or a statutory declaration, the nature of the emergency and that such emergency resulted in the person concerned requiring care by the employee.

 

In normal circumstances, a casual employee must not take carer's leave under this subclause where another person had taken leave to care for the same person.

 

(e)        The casual employee must, as soon as reasonably practicable and during the ordinary hours of the first day or shift of such absence, inform the employer of their inability to attend for duty. If it is not reasonably practicable to inform the employer during the ordinary hours of the first day or shift of such absence, the employee will inform the employer within 24 hours of the absence.

 

(x)        A family member for the purposes of (ii) (a) above is:

 

(a)        a spouse of the staff member; or

 

(b)        a de facto spouse being a person of the opposite sex to the staff member who lives with the staff member as her husband or his wife on a bona fide domestic basis although not legally married to that staff member; or

 

(c)        a child or an adult child (including an adopted child, a step child, a foster child or an ex-nuptial child), parent (including a foster parent and legal guardian), grandparent, grandchild or sibling of the staff member or of spouse or of de facto spouse of the staff member; or

 

(d)        a same sex partner who lives with the staff member as the de facto partner of that staff member on a bona fide domestic basis; or a relative of the staff member who is a member of the same household, where for the purposes of this definition:

 

"relative" means a person related by blood, marriage, affinity or Aboriginal kinship structures;

 

"affinity" means a relationship that one spouse or partner has to the relatives of the other; and

 

"household" means a family group living in the same domestic dwelling.

 

(xi)       Bereavement entitlements for casual employees

 

(a)        Casual employees are entitled to not be available to attend work, or to leave work upon the death in Australia of a family member on production of satisfactory evidence (if required by the employer).

 

(b)        The Department Head and the casual employee shall agree on the period for which the employee will be entitled to not be available to attend work.  In the absence of agreement, the employee is entitled to not be available to attend work for up to 48 hours (i.e. two days) per occasion.  The casual employee is not entitled to any payment for the period of non-attendance.

 

(c)        A Department Head must not fail to re-engage a casual employee because the employee accessed the entitlements provided for in this clause.  The rights of an employer to engage or not engage a casual employee are otherwise not affected.

 

(d)        The casual employee must, as soon as reasonably practicable and during the ordinary hours of the first day or shift of such absence, inform the employer of their inability to attend for duty. If it is not reasonably practicable to inform the employer during the ordinary hours of the first day or shift of such absence, the employee will inform the employer within 24 hours of the absence.

 

3.          This variation shall take effect from 19 December 2005.

 

 

 

F. L. WRIGHT J , President

 

 

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Printed by the authority of the Industrial Registrar.