CPSU is pursing potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in underpaid superannuation for our members.   Prison Officers and Youth Justice staff (shift workers) who take annual leave on weekends receive their ordinary penalty rate as opposed to receiving the 17.5% annual leave allowance.  The Department of Justice and Community Safety and the Department of Health and Human Services have not been paying superannuation on the leave loading for weekends because they were of the view that this leave loading did not meet the definition of “Ordinary Time Earnings” and was therefore not superannuable.

 

After a member at Marngoneet Correctional Centre raised his concerns with the union, CPSU wrote to Industrial Relations Victoria in February 2019 to advise that:

 

               “The SGR 2009/2 is clear in that if an annual leave allowance does not relate to a notional loss of opportunity to work overtime, then it is OTE and is therefore superannuable.

              “The entitlement provided by clause 41.4(a)(ii) of the Agreement is a recognition of an Employee’s ordinary hours of work and a continuation of that Employee’s ordinary salary or wages in respect of weekend work. It is therefore not subject to an exception under the SGR 2009/2 relation to annual leave loadings.”

              “As I am sure you will appreciate, the implications of this are potentially significant for CPSU members employed in Victorian prisons (and possibly all CPSU members employed as Shift Workers in the Victorian Public Service), and for the State of Victoria.

 

Following the claims made by CPSU, Industrial Relations Victoria initiated a review across the Victorian Government which found “potential inadvertent non-compliance issues within the Department of Justice and Community Safety and the Department of Health and Human Services.”

 

CPSU was advised in September that Industrial Relations Victoria and the relevant Departments engaged the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office to review the matter and rectify the non-compliance. 

 

CPSU will be pushing the Victorian Government to ensure that any money owed to our members is repaid.

 

CPSU will continue to update members as more information becomes available.