Thirty-one ex-employees will parade before various Fair Work Commissioners pleading an ‘industrial foul’. The brutal reality is that 26 will cock up and waste their day. The full list today is: CUB Pty Ltd (Sayers/Aitken); Builders Choice Insulation (Woodhall); Arthur J Gallagher Australia & Co (Hazledine); St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne (Steele); Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Sutton); Leighton Contracting (Tiernan); Roads Corporation (Forbes); Decon Communication and Power Solutions (Soso); Redline Plumbing Pty Ltd (Lamb); S & R Wyndham Pty Ltd (Houlshan); Mater Misericordiae Health Services Brisbane Limited (Kuether); Supercheap Auto (Williams); Prouds Jewellers Pty Ltd (King); Legrand Australia (Sheehan); RACQ Operations Pty Ltd & Buric and Another (James-Guy); MMA Vessel Operations Pty Ltd (Milovale Masoe); Pactum Australia Pty Ltd (Tamati); Medalist [Test-Rite] (Kazmar); Byng Street Pty Ltd (Aniscenko); Arthur J Gallagher Australia & Co (Hazledine); Tony and Guy Leichhardt (Farshadi); Golden Swan Investments [Australia] Pty Limited (Angius); BHP Coal Pty Ltd (Schmidt); Parmalat Food Products Pty Ltd (Tran); Quality Bakers Australia Pty Limited (Rozyn); South Coast Equipment Pty Limited (Harding/Boulding); Aminjarrinja Enterprises Pty Ltd (Paterson); Geelong Harley-Davidson (Wall); PJ & P Eldred (Peters); and Compass Group (Wright).
February 22, 2016
Woolworths’ relationship with a trio of staff members is ‘not so fresh’. The ramifications of stripping off three lettuce layers will be tested today in the Fair Work Commission. The full attendance list includes: St George Aged Care Centre (Taungakava, Perera and others), Hymix Australia Pty Ltd (Canny), Solibrooke Pty Ltd (Vosper), The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd (Dar), Tyco Fire & Security (Byrne), BHP Billiton Iron Ore Pty Ltd (McGinnis), Murdoch University Child Care Centre (Abdul Rahim), Pino Nominees Pty Ltd (Barton), Prestige Paving Pty Ltd (Basse), Calvary Health Care Tasmania Limited (Beamish), Kids Choice ELS WA Pty Ltd (Rolfe), Foster Pharmacy Pty Ltd (Wakeling), Epworth Foundation (Selcuk), Marist Brothers St Joseph’s College (Burke), Hollingsworth & Australian Sports Commission (Hanson), Clyde & Co (King), ISG Technology Pty Limited (Duryea), Dingo Australia (Gooderham), Pacific National Queensland Coal Pty Ltd (Feodoroff), Western Auger Drilling Pty Ltd (Kimber), Quality Bakers Australia Pty Limited (Signall), Woolworths Limited (Taito/Young/Bonham), Immersive Technologies (Farmer), Fast Cut Qld Pty Ltd (Smith), McLean Farms Staff Pty Ltd (Boyce), SAI Global Limited (Moushall), Mary MacKillop Care SA Ltd (Handley), Target Australia Pty Ltd (Sneddon) and Locale Revegetation Services (Farrell).
February 19, 2016
AB Contract Packing Pty Ltd is being challenged by four ex-staff members (Del Balso, Deville, Khroud and Migale) who have all mounted s.365 (unfair claims) in the Fair Work Commission this morning. The full list includes: Good Start Early Learning (Dann), Lost Dogs Home (Jessup), Retic Water Pty Ltd (Peterson), Manpower (Chidiac), Woolworths (Chidiac), Menzies Aviation (Ground Services) Pty Ltd (Blake), Mechanical Plumbing Services (Salman), Karingal Inc (Carroll), Traffic Diversions Group (Jaeger), ADSE Pty Ltd (Karaklic), Metal Manufactures Limited (Cicciari), SES Labour Solutions Pty Ltd & Anglo Coal (Dawson Services) Pty Ltd (Martin), Queensland Engineering Services (Murphy), Thiess Pty Limited (Garratt), Stramit Corporation Pty Limited (Hanley), The Pool Maintenance Man (Munro), Eve O & G (Cox), Members Equity Bank Limited (Meehan), Department of Education & Training, North-Eastern Victoria Region (Somasundaram), Compass Group Australia Pty Ltd (Newman), Grandviews Bowling & Recreation Club (Robinson), TNT Australia Pty Ltd (Campbell), PPG Industries Australia Pty Ltd (Dang), Bar’s Leaks (Australia) Pty Ltd (Lay), Sibelco Australia Limited (Medlicott), Redimed Pty Ltd (Chan), Retic Water Pty Ltd (Peterson), AB Contract Packing Pty Ltd (Del Balso/Deville/Khroud/Migale), Volgren Australia Pty Ltd (Khroud) and Melbourne Pathology (Matthiesson).
February 18, 2016
Two entities face multiple unfair dismissal claims including Victoria Police. A full list of today’s Fair Work Commission cases includes the following applicants and respondents: Eve O & G (Cox), The University of Newcastle (Wilks), Stramit Corporation Pty Limited (Hanley), Visy Packaging Pty Ltd (Higgins), Mogo Zoo Pty Ltd (Ryman), Tritton Resources Limited (Yeomans), Australian Islamic College of Sydney (Gleeson), Commonwealth of Australia as represented by the Australian Federal Police (Read), Mid-West Mining Pty Ltd (Simpson), AGL Loy Yang Pty Ltd (Wright), O’Toole Electrical (Morris), Skyways Hotel/ALH Group (Ranjit), Shearform Pty Ltd (Sutton), Farstad Shipping (Indian Pacific) Pty Ltd (Fry), Catholic Education Office Melbourne (Fisher), Konute Enterprises (Lama), Victoria Police (Matthews/Raso), The GEO Group Pty Ltd (Flaws), UnitingCare Community (Collins), Barbera Fresh Pty Ltd (Hannay/Sheppard), Auto and General Holdings Pty Ltd (Savva), Pacific National Queensland Coal Pty Ltd (Feodoroff), Stramit Corporation Pty Limited (Hanley), Gilbarco Aus Pty Ltd (Singh), Errol Matschoss Motors Pty Ltd (Conroy), Kellyvale No 87 Trust & The Lamb Spit Trading (Millar) and Telstra Corporation Limited (Smale).
February 18, 2016
Enterprise bargaining – protected action ballot – s.437 Fair Work Act 2009 – application made by union on behalf of employees – parties met approximately 10 times in effort to negotiate – employer does not consent to application and did not wish to make submissions – application determined on papers – satisfied statutory requirements been met and parties genuinely tried to reach agreement – concerned with a number of questions in ballot – whether action falls within meaning and scope of industrial action – Ambulance Victoria applied – action may or may not fall within scope of industrial action – matter for later consideration – order issued. Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) v Hydro-Electric Corporation t/a Entura.
February 18, 2016
Transfer of business – enterprise agreement – s.319 Fair Work Act 2009 – application by new employer seeking orders that non-transferring employees who perform transferring work be covered IPCA (Vic) Enterprise Agreement 2012 – Commission sought additional information about how non-transferring employees would not be disadvantaged under the Agreement – concerns regarding the exclusion of penalty payments for weekends and at night which could result in employees working high proportion of weekends or at night being disadvantaged compared to the Award – employer contended the Agreement met Better Off Overall Test – BOOT based on number of rosters provided by employers to be covered by the Agreement – submitted based on representative rosters provided employees would not be disadvantaged under the Agreement – Commission noted test under s.319(3)(b) of FW Act different from BOOT – Commission found employees could be disadvantaged by making order – satisfied concerns could be overcome by combination of two methods proposed by employer – signed undertaking and incorporation of undertaking into new contract of employment for existing and future employees – employer directed to deliver documents by 13 January 2016 – if documents not provided by due date application dismissed. Sub Regional Investments P/L atf the Sub Regional Investment Trust.
February 18, 2016
Enterprise agreements – dispute about matter arising under agreement – ss.590, 604, 739 Fair Work Act 2009 – permission to appeal – Full Bench – appeal against orders for production of documents – appellants contended permission to appeal should be granted, the appeal upheld and the orders quashed for two reasons – Commissioner had no jurisdiction to make orders because the proceedings in which they were made improperly commenced and a nullity – none of the documents sought in orders had apparent relevance to the issues in the proceedings – Full Bench considered Re Adams and Tax Agents’ Board – found Commissioner had authority to hear and determine appellant’s objections to the competency of the dispute application to ensure Commission’s jurisdiction not exceeded – in the exercise of that authority, the use of the Commission’s procedural powers, including to order production of documents under s.590(2)(c) of FW Act, remained available – Full Bench did not consider it appropriate to allow an appeal from interlocutory procedural decision to be used as a vehicle to resolve the jurisdictional question properly before Commissioner – Full Bench rejected second ground of appeal as identified the apparent relevance of the documents to be produced for the jurisdictional objections to be determined – no proper basis demonstrated either in the public interest or otherwise for permission to appeal to be granted – permission to appeal refused. Appeal by Reddam House Limited and Anor against orders of McKenna C at Sydney of 4 December 2015 and 8 December 2015 and reasons for decision of 14 December 2015 [[2015] FWC 8541] Re: Independent Education Union of Australia.
February 17, 2016
An air of normalcy returns to the portals of the industrial referees. Nineteen applicants will parade today seeking a boost to their bank balances. The work refugees include: Bowral Co-op (Gardner), Sheike & Co Pty Ltd (Suleiman), Lynford motors (Shearer), Electricity Networks Corporation (Boyle), Ingleburn Veterinary Hospital (Pontinen), Blamey Community Group (Adams), Aussie Candle Supplies (Herbert), Johnsen Quality Bakeries Pty Ltd (Jaschke), Barrier Group Pty Ltd (Brain), Boroondara Aged Services Society (Everett), Liebherr-Australia Pty Ltd (Rees), Transdev Melbourne Pty Ltd (Skopljak), Monivae College (Bishop), Let’s talk hair (Oberholster), Springfree Trampoline Aust Pty Ltd (Barlow), The Trustee for Lillywhite Hotels Trust (Hoban), Emirates Leisure Retail (Dean), Crown Equipment Pty Ltd (O’Connor), JSC Montessori Pre-Schools (Verduyn).
