ENTERPRISE BARGAINING – scope order – s.238 Fair Work Act 2009 – two applications heard together – both applications seek an order that would pertain to a proposed agreement to cover employees engaged at the Santos GLNG liquefied natural gas processing facility located on Curtis Island, off the coast of Gladstone, Queensland, (LNG Plant) – neither application seeks to cover all employees at the LNG Plant – controversy between the parties as to who should be within the scope of bargaining is confined to the three functional categories of Panel Technicians, Field Team Leaders and Laboratory Technicians – proper approach to two concurrent scope order applications – Kwinana considered – Commission satisfied the applicants in both matters have met good faith bargaining requirements – whether scope order proposed will promote fair and efficient conduct of bargaining – Santos had not made a proposal for separate bargaining for the group excluded from its preferred scope – raised an immediate issue concerning the interests of Field Team Leaders, Panel Technicians and Laboratory Technicians who wished to enterprise bargain – Santos submitted it would not object to bargaining for separate agreements, however it would not initiate bargaining – Commission concluded that making the AWU order would promote the fair and efficient conduct of bargaining, whereas making the Santos order would not – no need to further consider Santos’s application – Santos’s application dismissed – whether the group of employees was ‘fairly chosen’, taking account of geographical, operational or organisational distinctness – found Field Team Leaders, Panel Technicians and Process Technicians operationally distinct and were included in a group who were geographically distinct – satisfied AWU group was fairly chosen – Commission satisfied it was reasonable in all the circumstances to make the order as sought by the AWU. Australian Workers’ Union, The v Santos Ltd; Santos Ltd v Australian Workers’ Union, The and Ors
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