Advice and Instructions

Reports to the Vocational Training Tribunal and Appeal Panel

Issued: 18 July 2003

Matters referred to the Vocational Training Tribunal and Appeal Panel
To assist the operations of the VTT and the Appeal’s Panel to deal with matters referred for hearing and/or consideration, the following requirements must be complied with:

1. In those cases where the matter relates to an apprenticeship or traineeship which had been established under E – lodgement, the original hard copy of the Training Contract and Summary Training Plan must be attached to the file.
2. The current contact details of both parties must be clearly shown and should include current address and phone number.
3. Reports on matters referred to the VTT for hearing should be as per the following format:

Subject
Current details of both parties to the apprenticeship/traineeship;

Issue
Complaint by employer or apprentice/trainee or Industry Training Officer under section 39 (1), (2) or (3) of the A&T Act.

Background

• Date/s of visit/s,
• place/s visited,
• persons interviewed, their position in the organisation and qualifications relevant to the matter (is the person been interviewed qualified and/or authorised to assist with the investigation),
• issue/s raised by the party making the complaint,
• response to those issues by the other party,
• what action has been taken by the parties to address the issue/s that have led to the complaint?
• has this or other similar issues been raised in the past?

Current Situation

• What action has been recommended (remedial options) to the parties?
• What other steps have been taken to bring the parties to an acceptable Settlement? (as required by section 40(1) of the Act).
• What is the current situation and status of the apprenticeship/traineeship?

Recommendation
Recommendation should be firm and it should reflect the content of the report.

Note: The report should be factual and objective in its commentary as the requirement to observe procedural fairness includes a person’s right to know the details of the issue, the complaint and the report which may result in a detriment to that person. (See attachment A).

As appointed ITOs, officers should note the protection offered to them by section 77 of the Act ie.

Liability

A matter or thing done or omitted to be done by:

1. the Commissioner, or
2. the Tribunal or any member of the Tribunal, or
3. the Appeal Panel or any memeber of the Appeal Panel, or
4. an industry training officer, or
5. any person acting under the direction of the Commissioner, the Tribunal or the Appeal Panel,

does not subject the Commissioner , any member of the Tribunal or Appeal Panel, any industry training officer or any person so acting, personally, to any action, liability, claim or demand if the matter or thing was done in good faith for the purposes of executing this Act.

For any enquiries regarding this advice and instruction, please contact the Vocational Training Tribunal on (02) 9266 8450.

Other Resources:· Procedural Fairness in the Department of Education and Training

Approved by the Commissioner for Vocational Training