Filing of Awards in Computer-Readable Format under Rule 32

Practice Note No. 15

Issued 5 November 2004, re-issued 1 February 2010

Re-issued pursuant to Section 185A of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 and Section 15 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005

1. The purposes of this Practice Note are:

a) to facilitate the processing of Awards and Contract Determinations of the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales by emphasising and giving effect to the requirements of Rule 6.3 of the Industrial Relations Commission Rules 2009; and

b) to provide guidance for Members of the Commission and applicants appearing before the Commission on the steps necessary to ensure that Awards made by the Commission are publicly available in a timely manner and thus readily enforceable.

2. This Practice Note has effect from the date of re-issue. This Practice Note should be read in conjunction with Practice Note No. 16 – Filing of Documents in Computer Readable Format.

3. For the purposes of this Practice Note

'award' includes a contract determination.

'application for award' includes an application to vary an award, an application to rescind an award, an application for a contract determination or a contract agreement, and an application for an enterprise agreement.

'computer-readable format' means an electronic version of a document in such medium and in such format as to be compatible with, and readable by, the computer system of the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales from time to time and/or as specified by the Industrial Registrar or the Registrar's delegate from time to time.

'compatible with, and readable by' requires that documents be filed (on either diskette or CD-ROM) in any version of:

• Microsoft Word (DOC) or
• Rich Text Format (RTF)

and in relation to any annexures or attachments to documents (which cannot be provided in the above formats):

• Tagged Image Format (TIF)
• Graphical Image Format (GIF) and
• Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG)

are acceptable.

• Portable Document Format (PDF) is not an acceptable format

4. Unless a Member of the Commission makes a specific direction otherwise at the time of making, varying or rescinding an award, the applicant party shall file a copy of the award, award variation or notice of recision in a computer readable format within 7 days of the making, varying or rescinding of the Award.

5. The Member of the Commission who has made, varied or rescinded the award shall, within 14 days of determining the matter, cause to be forwarded to the Industrial Registrar the file in respect of the matter except where the file is still current (for example, an interim award), in which case the Member's staff shall forward copies of relevant extracts from the file sufficient to enable that award to be settled and published in the Industrial Gazette.

Boland J, President
1 February 2010