INDUSTRIAL ACTION – suspension of protected industrial action – endangering life – s.424 Fair Work Act 2009 – application for an order to suspend protected industrial action that was threatened for 90 days – threatened industrial action took the form of ‘an indefinite stoppage of work’ over a span of four hours on a specified day – applicant submitted the threatened industrial action would endanger or threaten to endanger the life, personal safety, health and/or welfare of school children left stranded by the cancellation of bus routes – TWU submitted there was no evidence to suggest a four hour stop work meeting met the ‘high threshold’ required to suspend the action – Commission objected to TWU’s frequent use of the term ‘high threshold’ as the duty of the Commission is to apply the words of the FW Act, and that to apply a synonym or otherwise reformulate the statutory language would likely cause the Commission to fall into error – Commission not satisfied evidence of applicant more than a generalised prediction – TWU submitted Commission entitled to have regard to measures applicant could have put in place to mitigate effect of industrial action, and that applicant had not made efforts to mitigate effect of industrial action – time still available to applicant to make such efforts – Commission not satisfied proposed stoppage will endanger life, personal safety or health, or the welfare, of the population or a part of it – application dismissed. Busways Blacktown P/L & Busways Blacktown North P/L and Ors v Transport Workers Union of NSW
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