PSA General Secretary Jan McMahon, Assistant General Secretary Nev Kitchin and Chief Industrial Officer Peter Christopher attended a Directions Hearing before the Full Industrial Relations Commission of South Australia earlier today.

The purpose of the Directions Hearing was to consider procedures and the setting of Hearing dates for the Arbitration case which will determine the final salary increase and also the amount of paid maternity leave.

Prior to this mornings' Hearing, the PSA submitted a “draft minutes of order”, which included an application for discovery of documents relevant to productivity measurement in the South Australian Public Sector, and how this has been applied in Enterprise Agreements for Nurses and Police.

The Association also requested that the Full Bench consider arbitrating paid maternity leave early in the new year whilst analysis was occurring of “discovered” documents.

The Government opposed the PSA application, including the discovery of documents submission, despite Counsel for Government advising that they had no opportunity to receive full instructions on the matter.

Consequently, the PSA requested a further Hearing to overcome Government's complaint that they had insufficient notice of certain aspects of the PSA application.