Summary
The Supreme Court upheld withdrawal of the special concession granting Treasury Junior Clerks the Deputy Accountant pay scale. The ordinary twelve-year progression scheme entitled them only to the next promotional scale of Senior Clerk. However, because benefits had continued under the High Court’s order pending the Tribunal’s decision, recovery was confined to excess payments after 4 December 2014, rather than after the withdrawal resolution of 11 September 2008.
Issues
- Whether withdrawal of the special higher pay-scale concession was valid.
- Whether the ordinary progression scheme independently conferred the Deputy Accountant scale.
- From what date excess payments could be recovered in the circumstances.
Held
- The executive resolutions governing the additional benefit could be altered through executive action. Withdrawal corrected the anomaly whereby Junior Clerks bypassed the Senior Clerk scale; their ordinary entitlement to the next promotional scale after twelve years remained available. (¶¶ 10, 11)
- Under the 1995 progression scheme and the recruitment hierarchy, Senior Clerk was the next promotional post for Junior Clerks. Deputy Accountant was a further promotional post for Senior Clerks, so the ordinary scheme did not independently preserve the withdrawn concession. (¶¶ 12, 13, 14, 15)
- Although employees had undertaken to refund benefits if the withdrawal was upheld, the High Court’s 2009 order protected continued benefits pending adjudication of their fresh applications. In these circumstances, recovery should extend only to excess payments after the Tribunal upheld withdrawal on 4 December 2014, payable in monthly instalments. (¶¶ 16, 17, 18, 19)
Result
Appeal partly allowed. Recovery direction modified by substituting 4 December 2014 for 11 September 2008; recovery of benefits secured before the substituted date restrained. Remainder of High Court judgment upheld; parties to bear their own costs.