Tribunal Policy and Dispute Settlement: The Nurses' Case 1986-87

Consistency in the implementation of tribunal policy has been advocated by both the federal tribunal and observers as essential to the integrity of the centrally managed policies of labour cost control and of arbitration tribunal operations generally. This paper examines the state tribunal policy operative during the fifty-day nurses' strike in Victoria and its application to the dispute. Policy implementation is distinguished from policy formulation in respect of which flexibility and (possibly frequent) changes of policy in response to conflicting pressures are seen as essential to tribunal effectiveness. In the management and settlement of this major dispute, the tribunal departed from its formal policy (the principles) then in operation and its informal policy (the convention concerning industrial action). Examples of an absence of standards, to enable a test of consistency to be applied, are also identified and illustrated in terms of the settlement decision. The position taken by the principal parties is shown to have created a dilemma for the tribunal and choices made by the Australian Council of Trade Unions are shown to have facilitated a flexible approach by the tribunal, which in turn generated some departure from policy.