(a) Existing allowances which constitute a reimbursement of expenses incurred may be adjusted from time to time where appropriate to reflect relevant changes in the level of such expenses.
(b) Existing allowances which relate to work or conditions which have not changed, including shift allowances expressed as monetary amounts and service increments, may be increased by 3 per cent for the State Wage Case 2001 adjustment.
Counterpart State awards should be adjusted by the same amount as their federal counterpart.
(c) Existing allowances for which an increase is claimed because of changes in the work or conditions will be determined in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Work Value Changes principle of these principles.
(d) New allowances to compensate for the reimbursement of expenses incurred may be awarded where appropriate having regard to such expenses.
(e) Where changes in the work have occurred or new work and conditions have arisen, the question of a new allowance, if any, will be determined in accordance with the relevant principles of these principles. The relevant principles in this context may be Work Value Changes or First Award and Extension to an Existing Award.
(f) New service increments may only be awarded to compensate for changes in the work and/or conditions and will be determined in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Work Value Changes principle of these principles.
11 There was no overarching submission by the Association about the principles relevant to its application. Nor was it entirely clear from the Association's submission which of the wage fixing principles was applicable in respect of each of the claims although, in most cases, the nature of the individual claim suggested which principle might be relevant. We have taken the view that in considering each of the claims by the Association we should test it against what we consider to be the relevant principle. In that respect we note that the most recent authoritative discussion on the nature of a special case was that by the Full Bench in Re Social and Community Services Employees (State) Award [2001] NSWIRComm 274 and by a subsequent Full Bench in Re Operational Ambulance Officers (State) Award [2001] NSWIRComm 331. In Re Social and Community Services Employees (State) Award the Full Bench said:
[22] As Mr Reitano for the Union argues, the present Special Case principle is not relevantly different from that found in the State Wage Case, May 1991 (1991) 36 IR 362 which was considered in Re Crown Employees (Administrative and Clerical Officers State) Award and Other Awards (No 2) (1993) 52 IR 243. In the latter decision the Full Commission held at 376 - 377:
"In our view, the special cases section of the principles provides a mechanism whereby a claim for enhanced wages or conditions beyond those normally allowed under the principles may be brought before the Commission. The hearing of such a claim is to be conducted by the Full Commission (formerly the Commission in Court Session) thus emphasising the special nature of the case. It will be a matter for the Full Commission, after hearing the evidence and submissions, particularly relating to the matters relied on to take the case "out of the ordinary" and thus to make it "special", to decide whether the claim, in part or in whole, should succeed.
Some of the cases brought under the special cases provision have relied, it is true, on the Work Value Changes principle, a principle which is not relied on here. But other cases, some of which have earlier been identified, have substantially been brought on the basis that developments in workplace reform of a structural efficiency kind, in which employees have participated or to which they have contributed, have been such as to justify wage increases beyond those normally allowable under the principles. On a number of occasions such applications have been approved by the Commission. In some of them the amounts of wage increase have been agreed by the parties but in others they have not, and the Commission has made an arbitrated decision in the matter.
In our view the present application can fit comfortably into the class of case to which we have just referred, certainly so far as it seeks wage increases by way of award prescription …
…
We therefore find that the applicants are entitled to bring their case under the special cases provisions of the principles.
That, of course, is not the end of the matter. The Full Commission must decide whether, on the whole of the material before it, and bearing well in mind the respondent's opposition, the claim should in whole or in part succeed, and, if so, what increase should be awarded and what conditions, if any, should be prescribed. But we repeat our view that, in accordance with the principles, it is entirely appropriate for this claim to be heard and for the Commission to grant the claim in whole or in part if considered justified on the merits.
It is also entirely appropriate, if it is concluded that, in general, the claim should succeed, the Commission have regard to economic considerations, including the changing value of money over time, when deciding the amount of increase which should be awarded. Matters which may be considered in that regard are the date on which the last wage increase for employees in question took effect, and changes in money values which have occurred since that time or are forecast during the prescribed life of the award to be made."
[23] Further in Re Transport Industry (State) Award (1996) 95 IR 126 a Full Bench of the Commission observed at 130-131:
"Mr. Warren submitted the Carpenters case principle is irrelevant to the determination of a special case; but the principles of wage fixation operate, in effect, as a code which provides all the principles of application. We are unable to accept this view. The approach adopted by the Full Commission in the Crown Employees case was that a case, if made out to be "special", may be determined according to its circumstances. That approach requires, in effect, that the Commission be satisfied that the case is not an ordinary one, but has special attributes which warrant its approval despite the restrictive considerations imposed generally by the principles of wage fixation. That does not mean that the Commission is precluded in an appropriate case, from deciding that an award should be made over the objection of a particular employer or group thereof. Indeed, a special case does not require consent at all."
[24] Thus it can be seen, as in our view Mr Reitano correctly submits, that strict compliance with the wage fixing principles generally or with the work value principle and structural efficiency considerations in particular is not required where as here a case is advanced as a special case.
[25] In saying that we should not be taken to mean that such considerations will necessarily be excluded from the special case. As much is clear from the Crown Employees case. It is however appropriate to observe, again as Mr Reitano submits, that the present Special Case principle unlike its 1990 predecessor does not require that cases be considered "in accordance with the structural efficiency and other relevant principles". It requires, as was said in the Transport Industry case, that special attributes exist which warrant approval by the Commission despite the restrictive considerations imposed generally by the principles of wage fixation and that is the essential basis upon which the Commission will approach the determination of the present application.