ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS – approval – ss.185, 604 Fair Work Act 2009 – appeal – Full Bench – appeal against decision to approve the Toll Energy Logistics Pty Ltd North West Agreement 2015 – Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) was unaware of existence of agreement prior to its approval and made no submissions to Commission opposing it – agreement was approved on the papers – Full Bench required to determine preliminary matters of whether MUA had standing to appeal and whether MUA should be permitted to adduce new evidence – MUA not a bargaining representative for agreement – Main People applied – MUA has an interest in decision beyond that of an ordinary member of the public – Commission satisfied of standing to bring appeal – J.J. Richards confers on Full Bench discretion to admit further evidence – MUA not afforded an opportunity to put forward evidence at first instance – both parties permitted to adduce new evidence – MUA contended that group of employees covered was not fairly chosen – MUA submitted employer always intended that a wide group of employees would be employed under the agreement and that this group of employees was readily identifiable when the agreement was made – while future pool of employees was identifiable, no obligation for employer to bargain with potential employees – employees fairly chosen MUA submitted agreement was not genuinely agreed to and that false and misleading statements were made by employer – Commission unable to find that employees were given false and/or misleading information during course of bargaining so as to enable a finding that the agreement was not genuinely agreed to by employees – given there was no hearing of the matter of opportunity for any person to raise issues raised by MUA before approval of agreement, public interest in granting permission to appeal enlivened – however, having regard to totality of evidence appeal is dismissed and decision to approve agreement confirmed. Appeal by The Maritime Union of Australia against decision of Cloghan C of 5 August 2015 [[2015] FWCA 5210] Re: Toll Energy Logistics P/L
…
