Supreme Court Action
03-Feb-2012The CMO and some other public health awards were in the Court of Appeal on Monday, 30 January 2012.
NOTE: All members who have CMO identified as their principal award classification in our membership records received this update directly earlier this week.
Members would be aware from previous updates that the Department of Premier and Cabinet (‘DPC’) filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, about the decision made by a Full Bench of the IRC of NSW. This decision provided for a 2.5% wage increase from 1 July 2011 but also left open the possibility of further wage increases if productivity and efficiencies could be demonstrated consistent with the Wages Regulation. The appeal was heard by a three Judge panel from the Court of Appeal, headed up by His Honour, Justice T Bathurst, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Submissions were made on behalf of the DPC and in turn the respondent unions, being the HSUeast and ASMOF. These went for some hours and took their lead from written submissions previously filed by the respective parties.
The Court of Appeal at the end of the proceedings reserved its decision. The Senior Counsel, Barrister, and Solicitor who were collectively representing the interests of ASMOF and the HSUeast at the hearing were reasonably satisfied with the day’s efforts and hopeful that the Court of Appeal would reject the application by the DPC. Time will tell ..... but fingers crossed.