Security Officers' Award

1. - TITLE

This Award shall be known as the Security Officers' Award.

2. - ARRANGEMENT

1.Title

2.Arrangement

3.Area and Scope

4.Term

5.Definitions

6.Types of Employment

7.Hours

8.Public Holidays

9.Annual Leave

10.Sick Leave

11.Long Service Leave

12.Compassionate Leave

13.Shift Allowances

14.Saturday and Sunday Work During Ordinary Hours

15.Overtime

16.Call Back

17.Mixed Functions

18.Employment Records

19.Posting of Notices

20.Allowances and Conditions

21.Classification Structure and Wage Rates

22.Minimum Adult Award Wage

23.Safety Provisions

24.No Reduction

25.Right of Entry

26.Union Delegates

27.Parental Leave

28.Liberty to Apply

29.Payment of Wages

30.Effect of 38 Hour Week

31.Termination of Employment

32.Dispute Settlement Procedures

33.Training Programme and Leave

34.Superannuation

35.Structural Efficiency and Award Modernisation

36.Jury Service Leave

37.Termination, Introduction of Change and Redundancy

Schedule A - Parties to the Award

Schedule B - Respondents

3. - AREA AND SCOPE

This award shall apply to all officers in the callings set out in Clause 21. – Classification Structure and Wage Rates, in the security industry and shall apply throughout the State of Western Australia; provided that this award shall not apply to those employees employed as Control Room Operators pursuant to the Clerks’ (Control Room Operators) Award No. A14 of 1981.

4. - TERM

The term of this award shall be for a period of one (1) year.

5. - DEFINITIONS

(1)"Security Officer" or “Officer” means a person employed to watch and/or guard and/or patrol and/or protect premises and/or property; provided that a Security Officer may perform incidental duties which need not be of a security nature.

(2)"Full time Officer" means an officer engaged for an average of 38 hours per week and paid by the week or fortnight.

(3)"Casual Officer" means an officer engaged by the hour.

(4)"Part Time Officer" shall mean an officer who is regularly employed for, and who works, between 10 and 38 hours per week.

(5)"Union" means the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, Western Australian Branch.

(6)"Day" means the period from midnight to midnight.

(7)"Night Shift" means any shift commencing between 5.00pm and 5.00am, or concluding between 11.00pm and 5.00am.

(8)"Afternoon Shift" means any shift commencing between 12.00 noon and 5.00pm, or concluding between 6.00pm and 11.00pm.

(9)“Continuous shifts” means an employee who is required to work ordinary hours of duty in accordance with a roster where the employee is rostered for duty over seven days of the week, and is required to work and works regularly on every day of the week, including public holidays and Sundays.

(10)“Non-Rotating Night Shift” means any shift in which night shifts are worked which do not rotate or alternate with another shift so as to give the employee at least one-third of his/her working time off night shift in each roster cycle.

(11)"Accrued Day(s) Off" means the paid day(s) off accruing to an officer resulting from an entitlement to the 38 hour week as prescribed in Clause 7. - Hours of this award.

(12)"Probationary Security Officer" means an officer who, upon commencement of employment with the employer, is required to serve a probationary period of three months in accordance with the provisions of subclause (5) of Clause 6. – Types of Employment.

(13)“Commission” means the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

(14)“Union Delegate” is a workplace representative or delegate of the Union, elected or appointed according to the rules of the Union.”

(15)“reasonable evidence” shall mean evidence which would satisfy a reasonable person.

(16)“immediate family” shall include

(a)the partner or de facto partner of an employee;

(b)the child or step-child of an employee;

(c)the brother or sister of an employee; or

(d)the parent, step-parent or grandparent of an employee.

6. - TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT

Employees under this award must be engaged as full-time, part-time or casual officers. Before engagement, an employer will inform each employee of the terms of their engagement, and in particular stipulate whether they are full-time, part-time or casual. This advice must be confirmed in writing within two weeks of commencement of employment. Termination of employment is subject to Clause 31. – Termination of Employment and Clause 37. – Termination, Introduction of Change and Redundancy of this award.

(1)Full-time employees

Full-time employees will be engaged for an average of thirty eight hours per week.

(2)Part-time employees

(a)An employer may employ part-time employees in any classification in this award.

(b)A part-time employee shall:

(i)work less than full-time hours of 38 per week; and

(ii)have reasonably predictable hours of work; and

(iii)receive, on a pro rata basis, equivalent pay and conditions to those of full-time employees who do the same kind of work.

(c)At the time of engagement the employer and the part-time employee shall agree in writing:-

(i)on a regular pattern of work, specifying at least the number of hours worked each week, and

(ii)unless unique circumstances make this impossible the employer shall also specify which days of the week the employees shall work and daily start and finish times.

(d)Any agreed variation to the regular pattern of work will be recorded in writing.

(e)An employer is required to roster a part-time employee for a minimum of three consecutive hours on any shift.

(f)An employee who does not meet the definition of a part-time employee and who is not a full-time employee will be paid as a casual employee in accordance with subclause (3)(a) of this clause.

(g)All time worked in excess of the hours agreed in paragraphs (c) or (d) of this subclause will be overtime and paid for at the rates prescribed in Clause 15.- Overtime of this award.

(h)A part-time employee employed under the provisions of this clause must be paid for ordinary hours worked at the rate of 1/38th of the weekly rate prescribed for the class of work performed.

(3)Casual Employees

(a)Casual Employees are engaged and paid by the hour.

(b)Casual employees must be paid a loading of 20% in addition to the applicable hourly rate in lieu of entitlements to sick and annual leave and payment for public holidays not worked.

(c)On each occasion a casual employee is required to attend work the employee is entitled to payment for a minimum of four hours work.

(d)In order to meet his or her personal circumstances a casual employee may request and the employer may agree to an engagement for less than the minimum of four hours. Any dispute about a refusal to such a request is to be dealt with as far as practicable with expedition through the dispute settlement procedures.

(e)An employer before engaging a person for casual employment must inform the employee that the employee is to be employed as a casual, stating by whom the employee is employed, the job to be performed and the classification level, the actual or likely number of hours required, and the relevant rate of pay.

(f)The employer shall give to a casual employee who has been engaged for one or more periods of employment extending over three or more weeks in any calendar month, and whose employment is or is likely to be ongoing, a note in writing signed by or on behalf of the employer stating:

(i)the name and address of the employer;

(ii)if the employee has been engaged by the employer to perform work on hire to another person or company or is regularly engaged to perform work on hire to other persons or companies, a statement to that effect;

(iii)the job to be performed and the classification level on which the employee has been or is likely to be engaged;

(iv)as far as practicable, the terms of the current engagement, including the likely number and likely pattern of hours required to be worked, the casual rate or other loading applied and the base rate of pay on which the loading is applied;

(v)the contingency on which the engagement expires, or the notice, if any, that will be given to terminate any ongoing employment;

(g)It shall be sufficient compliance with paragraph (f) if the employer gives such a note in writing upon or following the first occasion on which the casual employee has been so engaged for a period or periods extending over three or more weeks in any calendar month.

(4)Conversion to full-time or regular part-time employment.

(a)This sub-clause applies to a casual employee, but not one who has been engaged to perform work on an occasional or non-systematic or irregular basis.

(b)Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this subclause, an employee must not be engaged and re-engaged to avoid any obligations under this award.

(c)A casual employee, who has been engaged by a particular employer for a sequence of periods of employment under this award during a period of six months, shall thereafter have the right to elect to have his or her contract of employment converted to full-time employment or part-time employment.

(d)Every employer of such an employee shall give the employee notice in writing of the provisions of this subclause within four weeks of the employee having attained such period of six months.

(e)The employee retains his or her right of election under this clause if the employer fails to comply with this paragraph.

(f)Any such casual employee who does not within four weeks of receiving written notice elect to convert his or her contract of employment to a full-time employment or a part-time employment will be deemed to have elected against any such conversion.

(g)Any casual employee who has a right to elect under paragraph (c), upon receiving notice under paragraph (d) or after the expiry of the time for giving such notice, may give four weeks notice in writing to the employer that he or she seeks to elect to convert his or her contract of employment to full-time or part-time employment, and within four weeks of receiving such notice the employer shall consent to or refuse the election but shall not unreasonably so refuse. Any dispute about a refusal of an election to convert a contract of employment shall be dealt with as far as practicable with expedition through Clause 32 - Dispute Settlement Procedure of this award.

(h)If a casual employee has elected to have his or her contract of employment converted to full-time or part-time employment in accordance with paragraph (g) of this subclause, the employer and employee in accordance with this paragraph, shall discuss and agree upon:

(i)which form of employment the employee will convert to, that is, full-time or part-time; and

(ii)if it is agreed that the employee will become a part-time employee, the number of hours and the pattern of hours that will be worked.

(i)Provided that an employee who has worked on a full-time basis throughout the period of casual employment has the right to elect to convert his or her contract of employment to full-time employment and an employee who has worked on a part-time basis during the period of casual employment has the right to elect to convert his or her contract of employment to part-time employment, on the basis of the same number of hours and times of work as previously worked, unless other arrangements are agreed upon between the employer and employee.

(j)Following such agreement being reached, the employee shall convert to full-time or part-time employment.

(k)Any dispute about the arrangements to apply to an employee converting from casual employment to full-time of part-time employment shall be dealt with as far as practicable with expedition through the dispute settlement procedure.

(5)Probationary Security Officer

(a)An officer may only be a probationary security officer for the first three months of employment with the employer and only if the employer notifies the employee in writing prior to the engagement, and must be paid in accordance with Clause 21. - Classification Structure and Wage Rates.

(b)A probationary security officer must be appointed as a full-time, part-time or casual officer in accordance with this clause.

(c)Upon the satisfactory completion of the probationary period the employer must confirm this in writing, the officer's appointment and his/her employment status as a full-time, part-time or casual officer.

(d)A probationary security officer must, where applicable, be entitled to all of the leave benefits, allowances, loadings and penalty rates prescribed in this award.

(6)Rosters

(a)Subject to what is provided elsewhere in this subclause, full-time and part-time officers shall, by a legible notice displayed in a place accessible to such officers, be notified of the commencing and ceasing times of ordinary hours of work rostered by an employer no later than one week prior to the operative date of such roster or any subsequent operative date of an amendment thereto.

(b)A lesser period of notice than that prescribed in paragraph (a) hereof may be given by an employer in circumstances where -

(i)such is agreed between an employer and the employee in writing, or

(ii)the prescribed period of notice is not practicable because of an emergency.

(c)In any other circumstances, Clause 15. – Overtime shall apply.

7. - HOURS

(1)(a)The ordinary hours of work for full-time employees shall be an average of 38 per week and shall be worked on not more than five consecutive days of the week.

(b)Except where provided elsewhere in this clause, the ordinary hours shall be worked within a 20-day four-week cycle with 0.4 of an hour of each day worked accruing as an entitlement to take the 20th day in each cycle as an Accrued Day Off.

(2)By agreement between an employer and their employees covered by this award, the ordinary hours of an employee in lieu of the provisions of subclause (1) of this clause, may be worked:

(a)With two hours of each week's ordinary hours of work accruing as an entitlement to a maximum of 12 Accrued Day(s) Off (ADOs) in each 12-month period. The ADOs shall be taken at a time mutually acceptable to the employer and the employee.

(b)Within a 10-day, two-week cycle, with an adjustment to hours worked to enable 76 hours to be worked over nine days of the two-week cycle and an entitlement to take the 10th day in each cycle as an ADO.

(c)Within a five-day, one-week cycle, of 38 hours.

(3)In addition to the foregoing the following specific provisions shall apply:

(a)The ordinary working hours in any day shall be worked within a spread of ten hours and, where a broken shift is worked, each portion of that shift shall be for a period of not less than three hours.

(b)Nothing in this clause shall be construed to prevent the employer and the majority of employees affected in a workplace or part thereof reaching an agreement to operate any method of working a 38 hour week provided that agreement is reached in accordance with the following procedure:

(i)the Union will be notified in writing of the proposed variations prior to any change taking place;

(ii)the proposed variations for each workplace or part thereof shall be explained to the employees concerned and written notification of proposals will be placed on the notice board at the worksite;

(iii)the parties will then consult with each other on the changes with a view to reaching agreement;

(iv)where the majority of employees do not support the agreement then the issues will be referred to the Commission for conciliation and, if necessary, arbitration.

(4)An employer and employee may by agreement substitute the ADO the employee is to take off for another day; in which case the ADO shall become an ordinary working day.

(5)(a)A meal break of not less than half an hour nor more than one hour shall be allowed between the fourth and fifth hour of work unless otherwise agreed by the employer and the employee in times of emergency or staff accident or illness.

(b)Employees called upon to work during the ordinary meal break shall be paid overtime rates for all such work, provided that in the case of emergency, where it is necessary to work up to 15 minutes into a meal break, this provision shall not apply.

(c)All employees shall be allowed a tea break of ten minutes daily between the second and third hour from starting time each day. Such tea break shall be counted as time worked.

(d)Where an employer proposes to work overtime at the conclusion of the normal hours of work all employees who will be involved in working overtime of more than one and a half hours shall be allowed a break of ten (10) minutes duration. Such break shall be counted as time worked.

(6)Where ADOs are allowed to accumulate, the employer may require that they be taken within 12 months of the employee becoming entitled to an ADO.

(7)Any dispute over the operation of this clause must be dealt with in accordance with Clause 32. – Dispute Settlement Procedures.

8. – Public Holidays

(1)(a)Subject to the provisions of this clause, the following days (or the days observed in lieu) shall be allowed as holidays without deduction of pay:

New Year’s Day

Australia Day

Good Friday

Easter Monday

Anzac Day

Labour Day

Foundation Day

Sovereign’s Birthday

Christmas Day

Boxing Day.

Provided that another day may be taken as a holiday by agreement between the parties, in lieu of any of the days named in the subclause.

(b)Notwithstanding paragraph (1)(a) of this clause:

(i)When any of the holidays fall on a Saturday or a Sunday, the holiday shall be observed on the next succeeding Monday.