The care sector again underpins the 22 cases to be heard today. The full list of applicants and respondents is: Illawarra Retirement Trust (IRT) (Kono), Mary MacKillop Care SA Ltd (Handley), Locale Revegetation Services (Farrell), GM Holden Ltd (Harvey), Karingal Inc (Carroll), Melbourne Cricket Club (Louka), Westpac Banking Corporation (Vasli), Gladstone Area Water Board (Ellem), University of Queensland (Frijters), City of Stirling (Merino Rivero), SMSF Audits Pty Ltd (Cooney), The Trustee for DJ & ME Roydhouse Others (Broun), Atwood Australian Waters Drilling Pty Ltd (Taylor), Pilbara Iron Company (Services) Pty Ltd (Nikora), Diocese of Wollongong, Catholic Education (Dickson), Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union-Construction and General Division, New South Wales Divisional Branch (Garvey), Central Queensland University (Hofer), Pickles Auctions (Rooney), Marist Brothers St Joseph’s College (Burke), AJ & T Pulbrook Pty Ltd (Guthrie), TD & F Marciano Pty Ltd (Lee), Bedlam Enterprise Pty Ltd (Rohde).
February 9, 2016
This afternoon’s multiple offender is Svitzer Australia Pty Ltd which is being called upon to answer three separate dispute notices (s.372) lodged by Morris, Palmer and Dudgeon. Other appearances will include: Dubbo & District Preschool Kindergarten Inc (Simpson), Murdoch University Child Care Centre (Abdul Rahim), Qantaslink (Hayes), Consulate General of India, Sydney (Kumar), Ballina Furniture Overnights (Tomlinson), Durri Aboriginal Corporation Medical Service (Blanch), Kenna Teasdale Lawyers Pty Ltd (Gallagher), Mader International Pty Ltd (Duma), Western District Health Service (Hay), ACT Government as represented by the Health Directorate (Douangboupha), JML Engineered Facades Pty Ltd (Smith), Med+Eng Pty Ltd (Tschui), The Trustee for The Burns Plumbing Unit Trust (Tschui), Hymix Australia Pty Ltd (Canny), Coles Group Supply Chain Pty Ltd (Hutchings), Northern Star Resources Ltd (Cal), Macmahon Contractors Pty Ltd (Hall), The Creche and Kindergarten Association Limited (Symons), Cavglass Pty Ltd (Cave), SourceCo Electric Pty Ltd (Brown), University of Queensland (Frijters), Craig Arthur Pty Ltd (Wozniak), ZEN Energy Systems (McKie), GM Holden Ltd (Harvey), Allwater – Adelide Servings Alliance (Streng) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (Gal).
February 8, 2016
The union representing low-paid workers at Coles stores knew some might be financially worse off under an agreement it struck with the supermarket giant but did not tell its members, the Fair Work Commission has been told. An industrial officer for the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association also told the commission that the union knew some workers could be financially worse off under the agreement than under the award when it signed a statutory declaration saying the agreement should be approved. An executive director of consultancy firm Ernst and Young was also accused of “cutting and pasting” portions of an expert report tendered by Coles to support its contention that the deal would leave workers better off. The deal, which would affect 77,000 Coles workers Australia-wide, is under scrutiny after a Coles worker in Queensland claimed it would leave many employees out of pocket. By law, no enterprise bargaining agreement can leave workers worse off than they would be under the award, the basic wages safety net.
February 8, 2016
Perfume Network NSW Pty Ltd is on the nose with five staff members (Abbasi, Ali, Kashif, Mushtaq and Riaz) who are all pursuing s.394 unfair dismissal claims in Fair Work Brisbane. Other claimants today involve: Just Fine Foods (Drew), Nyoongar Patrol System Incorporated (Smith), Statewide Enviro-Weed Control Pty Ltd (Bryan), In2Work Pty Ltd (Durkin), Run Imports Australia Pty Ltd (Hammann), ADSE Pty Ltd (Karaklic), Ultra-Lift Cranes Pty Ltd (Alvarez), Interact Australia (Victoria) Limited (Noske), Department of Human Services (Starr), Bond University Limited (Robb), Clearly Bros (Bombo) Pty Ltd (Coles), Australia Post (Turner), Hippocrates Pty Ltd (Shipp), BHP Billiton Iron Ore Pty Ltd (Wright), Electricity Networks Corporation (De Villers), Auto Classic (WA) Pty Ltd (Roelofs), Kids CHoice ELS WA Pty Ltd (Rolfe), Coventry Fasteners (O’Regan), Carrerra Total Pty Ltd (Saleski), Craig Arthur Pty Ltd (Wozniak), BGC Contracting Pty Ltd (Thompson), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Haralambous), Cambro Construction Pty Ltd (Boothey), Cranbourne Music Pty Ltd (Lourens), Interact Australia (Victoria) Limited (Noske), Dhata Airport Services Australia (Yako), Wilson Security Pty Ltd (Harrison), Apicious Catering (Kabir), Kemizo Family Entertainment (Lester), Woolworths Ltd (Lukas), Australian Telecommunications Solutions (Maris),Brumbys (Owen).
February 5, 2016
Industrial action – termination of protected industrial action – s.424 Fair Work Act 2009 – industrial action approved by employees included various stoppages of work, bans on overtime, and range of other types of industrial action – employees planned on having five consecutive bans working overtime for a period of 24 hours each, commencing at 12.01am on Monday, 2 November 2015 and recurring at 12.01am each subsequent week until the AWU notified otherwise – employer had particular concern about ban and effect it has on ability of the employer to retain a state of readiness at the required level as indicated by the Fire Danger Index (FDI) at any particular time – employer submitted Victoria is facing a severe fire season and particular states of readiness require fire service officers (FSOs) to be held at the depot beyond their normal finishing time, on overtime, ready to respond to a fire event immediately – objective is to have staff and resources available to have 80% of fires suppressed at the first attack on that fire and before more than five hectares of land is burned – Commission found overtime ban is protected industrial action – not convinced employees could be at home and ‘on-call’ as employees would be further from the depot and the response time may be affected – satisfied the ban on overtime may affect the level of readiness and hence the ability of FSOs to respond to a fire event – no suggestion employees would not respond to any emergency or danger with utmost professionalism but slight delay in responding may have consequences that no one considered – industrial action terminated. State of Victoria (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) v The Australian Workers’ Union.
February 5, 2016
Termination of employment – security for costs – ss.394, 404A Fair Work Act 2009 – application for unfair dismissal remedy – respondent made application for security for payment of costs – dispute whether applicant resigned employment – respondent submitted matter brought vexatiously by applicant without reasonable prospect of success – respondent further contended applicant failed to provide adequate written materials prior to hearing – Commission held exercise of discretion to order security for costs limited to exceptional circumstances provided in Zordana and Home Theatre Group – existence of possible resignation not sufficient to conclude whether dismissal occurred – unable to conclude matter brought vexatiously or that application has no reasonable prospect of success – contrary to s.381 of FW Act to draw conclusions from inadequacy of written materials provided by applicant – order for security of costs would discourage applicant from pursuing application for unfair dismissal – no other extraordinary circumstances present – application for security for costs dismissed. Cole v PQ Australia P/L t/a PQ Australia.
February 5, 2016
Enterprise agreements – dispute about matter arising under agreement – s.739 Fair Work Act 2009 – respondent a manufacturer of bread and baked goods – respondent ceased paying a shift loading to employees on the rolls, crumpets and muffins lines (RCM lines) – applicant submitted respondent required to pay shift loading to employees on RCM lines – Goodman Fielder Baking (Western Australia) Enterprise Agreement 2014-2017 provides shift loading to those on a ”rotating shift’ – ‘rotating shift’ not defined by agreement – applicant submitted that a plain construction of the agreement, the employees on RCM lines were on rotating shifts as their start times varied from day to day – respondent submitted that employees were not on a rotating shift, as ‘rotating shift’ means there is a succession of shifts with sequential start times, such as dayshift, afternoon shift and nightshift – Commission satisfied employees on RCM lines not entitled to shift loading – application dismissed. United Voice v Quality Bakers Australia P/L t/a Goodman Fielder Fresh Baking.
February 5, 2016
Termination of employment – remedy – compensation – ss.392, 394 Fair Work Act 2009 – previous decision found applicant dismissed unfairly – reinstatement not appropriate – Tabro Meat approach to calculation of compensation followed – applicant employed eight years – aside from one written warning, no performance issues – reasonable to assume applicant would have remained employed for one year – applicant unemployed 11 weeks following dismissal – earnings deducted from compensation amount – $12,982 ordered. Styles v TNT Express.
