Background
5The application arises out of a stop work meeting of members of the PSA on 8 October 2012 from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm. The stop work meeting was called by the Executive of the PSA on 27 August 2012, for the purpose of briefing members "on the attacks on wages, jobs and conditions by the O'Farrell Government, on what the PSA is doing and what more we plan to do." In its announcement calling the meeting the PSA Executive stated:
Since coming to office the Government has:
imposed a cap on pay rises, including passing legislation limiting the role of the industrial umpire, NSW Industrial Relations Commission. This latter part has been challenged in the High Court by the PSA. The hearing is on 5 September.
Ordered agencies to cut jobs - 5,000 were ordered in their first budget, and 10,0000 jobs in the latest budget (based on a 1.2 % cut in labour costs). Cuts across the service are being announced on a regular drip-feed of information.
Lodged a claim in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to cut conditions and allowances, some of which will affect all members and others will unfairly impact on groups of members. (see (sic) PSA website at http://www.psa.labor.net.au).
And today they have told the PSA and the Commission that they will be lodging awards to strip another hundred public sector conditions awards. This will include awards covering other unions as well as the other PSA conditions awards.
6It was Mr Turner's evidence that prior to the announcement of the matters giving rise to the calling of the stop work meeting, there was limited or minimal consultation by the Government with the respondent despite the changes being significant. The "claim" referred to in the PSA's announcement was an application filed by the applicant's predecessor on 6 June 2012 for a new Crown Employees (Public Service Conditions of Employment) Award ("the Conditions Award").
7The stop work meeting was State-wide and was arranged to be webcast from the Sydney Town Hall, the site of the main meeting, to 47 metropolitan and regional venues.
8According to the evidence of Mr Bacic, on 27 September 2012 the Minister for Industrial Relations wrote to John Cahill, the then General Secretary of the respondent, inviting him to meet to discuss industrial relations issues, including concerns raised by the respondent regarding the Conditions Award. It was Mr Turner's evidence that the first time the PSA had sighted the letter was as an annexure to Mr Bacic's affidavit in these proceedings.
9It appears that what occurred next on 28 September 2012 was that the applicant notified the existence of an industrial dispute under s 130 of the Act.
10Consequently, Haylen J convened a compulsory conference on 2 October 2012. Arising out of that conference, his Honour made a recommendation that the respondent postpone the stop work meeting and take up the offer of the Minister for further discussions. A meeting took place between Mr Cahill, senior officers of the PSA and the Minister on 3 October 2012.
11There were differing views about what occurred at that meeting. Mr Turner, who attended the meeting, stated that the PSA raised its concerns about the changes to conditions for its members and the imposition of the salary cap. He said the Minister promised to get back to the PSA in relation to its concerns. Mr Turner said that up until the time he made his statement in these proceedings that still had not occurred. Mr Turner stated that:
At no point in that meeting did the Minister or anyone else request that the PSA withdraw or postpone its stoppage planned for 8 October 2012.
12Mr Bacic's evidence was that whilst the meeting on 3 October 2012 was for the purpose of discussing the Conditions Award application, the respondent advised it did not intend to enter into negotiations about that matter. Further, in accordance with the Minister's undertaking to get back to the PSA, on 27 October 2012 the Minister wrote to the respondent asking that further discussions take place about the Conditions Award and seeking alternative proposals. Mr Bacic accepted that the stoppage scheduled for the following Monday was not raised in discussions on 3 October 2012.
13At some point on 3 October 2012, Haylen J issued a certificate of attempted conciliation under s 135(2) of the Act.
14Following the meeting on 3 October 2012, which occurred at about 4.00 pm, Mr Bacic emailed Mr Cahill asking him to confirm that the industrial action was postponed and to do this by 10.00 am on 4 October 2012. On the morning of 4 October, Mr Bacic received a reply from Mr Cahill. In that reply, Mr Cahill stated that the industrial action planned for 8 October had not been discussed at the previous day's meeting. Further, that once the PSA received a response from the Minister regarding the concerns it had raised in connexion with the Conditions Award, the respondent would be in a position to "decide on the postponement or otherwise of the industrial action."
15Mr Bacic said that in the evening of 4 October, he received an email notification from the respondent titled "PSA/CPSU News" confirming that the industrial action on 8 October 2012 would proceed.
16On Friday 5 October 2012, the applicant applied under s 136(1)(c) and s 137(1)(a) of the Act for orders directed at averting the stoppage of work on 8 October. At approximately 11.30 am on 5 October, Backman J made the following order and directions:
ORDER
1. The Public Service Association and Professional Officers' Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales, by its officers, employees and members employed in the New South Wales public sector are hereby directed to refrain from taking industrial action on 8 October 2012.
DIRECTIONS
1. The Public Service Association and Professional Officers' Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales and its officers, are hereby directed to take all reasonable steps to ensure that its members employed in the New South Wales public sector comply with Order 1, including notifying its members of Order 1 by posting this Order in a prominent position on its website within 4 hours of receipt of service.
2. Service of this Order may be effected by sending a facsimile copy to the Public Service Association and Professional Officers' Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales or by handing a copy of this Order to an officer or employee of the Public Service Association and Professional Officers' Association Amalgamated Union of New South Wales as soon as possible upon its receipt.
3. The Order shall take effect immediately and shall remain in force until 9 October 2012.
17Mr Bacic said in his evidence that on 5 October, and after the making of the Order and the Directions, the respondent emailed a bulletin to its members and posted a notice on its website headed "STOP WORK TO GO AHEAD ON MONDAY". The posting included the Order, followed by the words:
"The PSA Senior Officers have determined that the meetings on Monday 8th October will go ahead as planned."
18Mr Bacic also stated that on 5 October, the respondent posted a notice on its website headed "Public sector workers will stand up for jobs". The posting included the words:
"Protests by public sector workers will go ahead on Monday, as thousands face jobs cuts and cuts to conditions under the NSW Liberal Government..."
"Many thousands of our members feel they have no choice but to take a stand against the massive cuts to the public sector, to protect jobs and services. They feel a responsibility to the public of NSW to fight these cuts," Mr. Cahill said."
19Mr Bacic described the impact of the stoppage on government departments and agencies. This included the following:
913 Correctional Officers and 51 Community Offender Services staff participated in the stoppage with 3,884.96 working hours lost;
the following Courts were closed or services affected due to staff taking action:
(i) Newcastle, Newtown, Wagga Wagga and Griffith Courts sat but the Registries were closed for the morning.
(ii) Sydney Central Court sat but with limited Sheriff services.
(iii) Broken Hill and Penrith Courts did not sit until 2pm.
Mount Druitt, Muswellbrook, Scone, Moruya,
(iv) Nowra, Kurri Kurri, Junee, Narrandera, Glenn Innes, Inverell, Macksville, and Cobar Courts did not sit.
1,142 employees across the Department of Family and Community Services participated in the stoppage with an estimated 3,800 working hours lost;
in Ageing, Disability and Homecare:
(i) Case management, psychology, and therapist services were unavailable at some centres for short durations.
(ii) Some day-programs at Metro Residences (residential facilities for aged clients and people with disabilities who require nursing care) were unavailable for half a day.
(iii) At Riverside Centre, some clients were moved to alternative units where staffing was limited.
(iv) At other centres, contingency plans were put in place to ensure continuity through skeleton staffing, and use of casual nursing staff at additional cost to support client supervision ratios and to ensure medications, feeding and personal hygiene priorities were met.
in Education and Communities:
(i) 38% of non-teaching staff in schools participated in the stoppage with significant impacts on the provision of care and management of students with disabilities and behaviour disorders. Some of the assistance provided by school learning support officer, required to assist teachers in school and community settings that was affected included: direct food preparation and assisting students with eating and drinking; the implementation of travel training programs; the supervision of students on excursion, work experience and travel training programs; and supervision of students with severe and/or multiple, physical and/or intellectual disabilities.
(ii) A number of Schools for Specific Purposes and some special units in mainstream schools were closed because of the stop work meeting.
in Transport:
(i) The Roads and Maritime Services Registry in Broken Hill was closed until 1pm.
20In defence of the PSA's decision to proceed with the stoppage of work, Mr Turner said in his statement:
The stop work meeting on 8 October 2012 went ahead as planned. The PSA did not cancel the meeting as it had been advertised by the PSA as a major event dealing with significant issues affecting its membership for in excess of two months. As The PSA did not believe it could cancel this long-planned event on the final business day before it was to occur in circumstances in which the membership felt very strongly about the underlying issues that lead (sic) to the calling of the meeting and members were greatly concerned about the attacks of (sic) their job security, salaries and conditions of employment which were the focus of the meeting.
The PSA formed the view it would be very difficult to effectively cancel the event on Friday afternoon in circumstances in which members were likely to have already made travel and other arrangements in order to attend the meeting, the PSA had entered contractual arrangements to hire venues and secure webcast facilities which could not be undone and many members were likely to be uncontactable on 8 October 2012 as a result of it being the final day of the school holidays. The PSA had no confidence that it could fully inform its members that the meeting had been called off and believed that an attempt to call off the meeting at the stage was likely to cause confusion amongst the membership.
During the duration of the stop work meeting no animal, person or building was put at risk. As a matter of general practice, the PSA will always ensure that any stop work meeting is conducted in a manner which does not cause risk to person or property. For example, the PSA ensures that skeleton staffing is maintained in correctional centres, juvenile justice centres and aged care and disability facilities.
21Mr Turner also stated that the PSA regretted that its actions led to its contravention of the dispute orders.
22I note that in January 2013, the PSA confirmed that it would not be seeking increases in salary and allowances in excess of 2.5 per cent except in accordance with the Industrial Relations (Public Sector Conditions of Employment) Regulation 2011. What followed was that the applicant withdrew its application for a new Conditions Award.