Section 19 of the NSW Industrial Relations Act 1996 provides that the NSW Industrial Commission is required to review all awards in the State jurisdiction at least once in every 3 years.

The Commission is required to finalise its review of awards by September 2001. While a substantial number of public sector awards have been finalised through the review process, there are still a number of awards that have either not been finalised, or have not previously been listed for review.

The Commission has advised that it will deal with finalising all outstanding awards by the setting up of a panel headed by Vice-President The Hon Justice Walton to expedite the award review process.

Notices of award review are now going out from the Industrial Registry, and the Commission intends to deal with both awards that are already in the system and those that will now be brought on for review as expeditiously as possible. They have advised that matters will no longer be able to be stood over generally pending the making of a new award, and that parties must address the issue of the reviewed award, and how they intend to finalise the matter.

The Registrar is in the process of issuing letters to the parties to awards that have not yet been reviewed, advising them of the listing of the awards before a Registrar's call-over and the processes they need to follow and information they will need to provide. Organisations should be mindful of the restricted time frames now in place to complete award reviews and that they must deal with the matters as quickly as possible.

Please contact your Employee Relations Client Contact Officer for further advice on this issue or Elizabeth Casey on 9228-3564.

C Gellatly
Director-General

Issued by: Employee Relations Division, PSMO
Contact: Merillyn Grey/Elizabeth Casey
Telephone: 9228-3593/3564
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Date: 13 March 2001
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Supersedes M97-22; C97-60. Not current