3 April 2002

Update to Pay Equity Test Case

The complete decision of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission Full Bench is now available. Full reasons for the decision are set out in the Full Bench's 34-page judgement through the NSW Attorney General's Department website.

New rates of pay can be found at Appendix 8 and translation to the new structure is set out at Appendix 9. Appendices can be accessed via the link at page 31 of the judgement.

The decision directly adjusts the rates for all librarians, library technicians and library assistants employed in the NSW Public Service, the State Library, TAFE NSW, statutory authorities and other government agencies. It will hopefully also extend in due course to those organisations which use state employment rates as benchmarks.

More broadly, we would hope and expect other trade unions [for example in local government and higher education] to pick up the principles behind the IRC decision and develop claims for their members who are not covered by this decision and this award.

In the case of non-award employment in the private sector, the situation is more nebulous. But even there, the market for library workers in NSW will be significantly lifted by this decision. The decision affects all librarians, library technicians and library assistants.

ALIA will be urging relevant trade unions to study the decision carefully prior to lodging claims for library workers in other sectors and in other industrial jurisdictions where they believe this is warranted.

ALIA will also be developing a submission to private-sector employers pointing out that the major increases in the work value of librarians identified in this case do not stand alone.

Many of the factors giving rise to that increase apply equally to librarians in the vast majority of other workplaces. ALIA will be asking private-sector employers to ensure that their library workers have received appropriate salary recognition of their greater work value.

Further information and analysis will be provided through our monthly newsmagazine, inCite.

[ The original press release ]