Section 25
Transfer of employees from National Heritage Board, etc.
of National Library Board Act 1995
(1)
On 28 March 2013 (called in this section the transfer date), such categories of persons employed by the National Heritage Board immediately before that date in —
the National Archives; or
any oral history centre established by the National Heritage Board,as the Minister may determine are transferred to the service of the Board on terms no less favourable than those enjoyed by them immediately prior to their transfer.
(2)
Until such time as terms and conditions of service are drawn up by the Board, the scheme and terms and conditions of service in the National Heritage Board continue to apply to every person transferred to the service of the Board under subsection (1) as if he or she were still in the service of the National Heritage Board.
(3)
The terms and conditions of employment to be drawn up by the Board —
must take into account the salaries and terms and conditions of service, including any accrued rights to leave, enjoyed by the persons transferred to the service of the Board under this section while in the employment of the National Heritage Board;
in the case of any such term or condition relating to the length of service with the Board, must provide for the recognition of service under the National Heritage Board by the persons so transferred as service by them under the Board; and
must not adversely affect the conditions that would have been applicable to persons transferred to the service of the Board as regards any pension, gratuity or allowance payable under the Pensions Act 1956.
(4)
All deeds, schemes, bonds, agreements, instruments and arrangements subsisting immediately before the transfer date to which the National Heritage Board is a party and relating to any person transferred to the service of the Board under subsection (1) continue in force on and after that date and are enforceable by or against the Board as if the Board had been named therein or had been a party thereto instead of the National Heritage Board.
(5)
Any proceedings or cause of action relating to any employee transferred to the service of the Board under subsection (1) pending or existing immediately before the transfer date by or against the National Heritage Board, or any person acting on its behalf, may be continued and are to be enforced by or against the Board.
(6)
Where on the transfer date —
any disciplinary proceedings were pending against any employee of the National Heritage Board transferred to the service of the Board under subsection (1), the proceedings are to be carried on and completed by the Board; and
any matter was in the course of being heard or investigated or had been heard or investigated by a committee of the National Heritage Board acting under due authority but no order, ruling or decision had been made thereon, the committee is to complete the hearing or investigation and make such order, ruling or direction as it could have made under the authority vested in it before that date.
(7)
Any order, ruling or direction made by such a committee pursuant to subsection (6) is to be treated as an order, a ruling or a direction of the Board and has the same force or effect as if it had been made by the Board pursuant to the authority vested in the Board under this Act.
(8)
The Board may reprimand, reduce in rank, retire, dismiss or punish in some other manner a person transferred to the service of the Board under subsection (1) for any misconduct or neglect of duty committed before the transfer date which would have rendered that person liable to be reprimanded, reduced in rank, retired, dismissed or punished in some other manner if that person had continued to be in the employment of the National Heritage Board and if this Act had not been enacted.
(9)
To avoid doubt, section 18A of the Employment Act 1968 does not apply to the transfer under this section of any employee of the National Heritage Board to the Board.
(10)
Notwithstanding any other written law or any contract, no person who is transferred from the National Heritage Board to the service of the Board under subsection (1) is entitled to claim any benefit under that written law or contract for termination of his or her service on the ground of redundancy or abolition of his or her office in consequence of the transfer of the National Archives or any oral history centre from the National Heritage Board to the Board.
(11)
Except as otherwise provided in this section, nothing in subsection (1) prevents the terms and conditions of a transferred employee’s employment on or after the transfer date from being varied in accordance with those terms and conditions, or by or under any written law, or an award, a determination or an agreement; and “vary”, in relation to terms and conditions of service, includes omitting any of those terms and conditions, adding to those terms and conditions, or substituting new terms and conditions for any of those terms and conditions.
(12)
In every case where a person transferred to the service of the Board under this section is also a person transferred from the employment of the Government to the National Heritage Board under section 40 of the National Heritage Board Act 1993, the Government and the National Heritage Board are each liable to pay the Board such portion of any gratuity, pension or allowance payable under the Pensions Act 1956 to such person on his or her retirement as the same bears to the proportion which the aggregate amount of his or her pensionable emoluments during his or her service with the Government and the National Heritage Board, respectively, bears to the aggregate amount of his or her pensionable emoluments during his or her total service under the Government, the National Heritage Board and the Board.[14L