Twenty-six unfair dismissal/contract dispute applications will be heard today in the Fair Work Commission. The list is: Norgrove Training Pty Ltd (White), Seed Distributors (Renaglia), Gringos Mexican Restaurants Pty Ltd (Thompson), Master Tree Ninja (Whitfield), Perc Group Pty Ltd (Barratt-Hassett), Coles Supermarkets Aust Pty Ltd (Angelakos), Employment Advocacy Solutions Pty Ltd (Buttress), Australia for UNHCR (Tamu), UHK Pty Ltd (Paul), Metro Tasmania Pty Ltd (Chisholm), St Vincent’s Private Hospitals Ltd (Suzara), Ray White (Projects) Pty Ltd & Mansour and Another (Moore), Melbourne Health (Pollock), Ray White (Projects) Pty Ltd & Mansour and Another (Tutt), Avalon Vet Pty Ltd (Gledhill), Jamil S.J.S. Pty Ltd & Jimee (Ali), University of Sydney (Rahim & Macdonald), City of Sterling (Emery), Emmanuel Christian Community School Incorporated (Davis), AME Mineral Economics Pty Ltd (Lloyd), St George’s Basin Country Club Ltd (Johnson & Marr and Others), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Zepidis), Catholic Healthcare Limited (Hickson), Cowra Tyre & Brake Centre Pty Limited (Davis), Durri Aboriginal Corporation Medical Service (Skinner), Auspacific Property Investment Pty Ltd (Xu).
September 17, 2018
The public is losing faith in the efficacy, accuracy and erudition of the Fair Work Commission website as it struggles with the implementation of a $3m IT innovation which replaces an information system that worked. Twenty-four will plead their unfair dismissal/ labour dispute claim today: Boral Cement Limited (Hawkins, Ramsay Health Australia Pty Ltd (Aivaliotis), George Weston Foods Ltd (Garcia), United Protestant Association of NSW Ltd (Grabovsky), Sydney Trains (Weston), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Zepidis), Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd (McKenzie), City of Sterling (Emery), Diamond Offshore General Company (Baldwin & Billows and Others), Ramsay Health Care (Buksh), Chengcheng (Aust) Enterprise Melbourne Proprietary Limited (Allen, Chin, Gibbons), North End Tyres Pty Ltd (Al-Dawood), St Vincent’s Private Hospitals Ltd (Suzara), Seljo (NT) Pty Ltd (Tiwari), Coles Supermarkets Aust Pty Ltd (ANgelakos), ProCare Personnel (Aust) Pty Ltd (Taylor), WesTrac Pty Ltd (Mwango), The Pharmacy Guild of Australia (Riley), Seventh-day Adventist Schools (North New South Wales) Ltd & Youlden and Others (Smyth), Hilltop Meats Pty Ltd (Golledge), TPMBM Pty Ltd (Kellett), Best Cut and Colours (Stojanovic).
September 14, 2018
There are twenty-four late additions to the unfair dismissal/labour dispute list in the Fair Work Commission today. The list includes: Flight Centre (Shackleton), Lismore Central Chempro Chemist (Burogolevu), InvoCare Australia Pty Limited (Hull), Cambewarra Out of School Hours Care (Douglas), Linfox Armaguard Pty Ltd (Hobbs, Savio), St Jospeh’s Flexible Learning Centre (Cowper), Merage Group Pty Ltd (Graham), Sydney Credit Union Ltd (Kumar), THGH Barton Family Trust (Celoria), BTi Logistics Pty Ltd (Mo), Ausgrid Management Pty Ltd (ARmapamoorthy), Yeats Betts Solicitors (Cook), Indian Food Catering (Singh), Canberra Greyhound Racing Club Inc (Peck, Thomas), Alcoa of Australia Limited (Waite), Alice Springs Town Council (Fitzsimmons), Phillip Morris Limited (Ng), Healthcare Australia (Melo Gaete), Australia for UNHCR (Tamu), Sarina Russo Job Access (Australia) Pty Ltd (Burge), Merage Group Pty Ltd (Graham), Work Pack (Pickwick), ConvaTech Qld Pty Ltd (Harrison).
September 14, 2018
INDUSTRIAL ACTION – order against industrial action – pattern bargaining – ss.412, 418 Fair Work Act 2009 – application for order to stop industrial action – CFMMEU sought to replace Boom’s three expired agreements – draft agreements based on CFMMEU’s template agreement for the mobile crane sector – Boom indicated it would be ‘economically disastrous’ for it to agree to the template agreement – protected action ballot order (PABO) granted – CFMMEU gave notice it would take industrial action – Boom submitted the proposed industrial action was not protected due to CFMMEU engaging in pattern bargaining – whether CFMMEU undertook a ‘course of conduct’ which involved ‘seeking common terms’ to be included in 2 or more agreements – Boom submitted that CFMMEU was negotiating a similar agreement with WGC Crane Group P/L (WGC) around the same time – Commission rejected CFMMEU’s contention that a ‘course of conduct’ requires two or more employers in negotiations for an agreement with a bargaining representative at the same meeting – Commission satisfied CFMMEU was engaging in pattern bargaining – CFMMEU was engaged in course of conduct which involved seeking common terms to be included in the proposed agreements of Boom and WGC – whether CFMMEU genuinely trying to reach agreement – found only two meetings have occurred between the parties – found that CFMMEU had not responded to offer made by Boom – no evidence demonstrating CFMMEU’s preparedness to take into account the site specific circumstances of Boom – not satisfied CFMMEU was genuinely trying to reach agreement, consistent with decision in WGC’s case [[2018] FWC 5101] – order to be issued that the intended industrial action will not be protected industrial action. Boom Logistics Limited v Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union
September 14, 2018
GENERAL PROTECTIONS – extension of time – ss.365, 366 Fair Work Act 2009 – application to deal with general protections dispute involving dismissal – application lodged two days out of 21 day time period – whether exceptional circumstances exist taking into account all relevant factors – to be exceptional, circumstances must be out of the ordinary course but need not be unique or unprecedented [Nulty] – Commission not satisfied applicant took action to dispute the dismissal which weighed against finding of exceptional circumstances – satisfied applicant faced significant barriers in lodging application and that case has considerable merit weighing in favour of finding exceptional factors – considered other factors neutral – overall Commission satisfied of exceptional circumstances warranting extension – extension granted. Ali v Jamil Jimee; Jamil S.J.S. P/L
September 14, 2018
CASE PROCEDURES – no reasonable prospects of success – apprehension of bias – s.789FC Fair Work Act 2009 – application for order to stop bullying – applicant non-compliant with member’s directions and refused to file material in support of application – applicant requested member no longer deal with matter due to bias – Commission found claim of apprehended bias not sustained – application that member no longer deal with matter refused – respondent applied for substantive application to be dismissed due to no reasonable prospect of success – dismissal application granted – application dismissed. Ms Perks
September 14, 2018
CASE PROCEDURES – procedural and interim decisions – ss.394, 400, 604 Fair Work Act 2009 – permission to appeal – Full Bench – at first instance Commission dismissed application to consolidate and transfer six unfair dismissal matters to a single member – appellants sought permission to appeal on four grounds – contended that matters had travelled together, that issues of fact and law in the matters were identical, that respondent had not opposed application to consolidate and that member at first instance had an interest in the matter – Full Bench considered that appeal was from an interlocutory procedural decision – permission to appeal not usually granted in such instances – found that appeal lacked merit – no basis to assertion of bias – lack of appearance by respondent of no significance – permission to appeal refused. Appeal by King & Deeney and Ors against decision of Catanzariti VP of 8 June 2018 [[2018] FWC 3406] Re: Patrick Projects P/L
September 14, 2018
ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS – dispute about matter arising under agreement – ss.604, 739 Fair Work Act 2009 – permission to appeal – Full Bench – decision at first instance dealt with a jurisdictional objection raised by James Cook University (University) re the National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) had no standing to bring a dispute to the Commission under cl 44(b) of the James Cook University Enterprise Agreement 2016, as it was either not a party to the agreement or it was not appointed as the representative of any employee – University also contended 17 April 2018 meetings re notifications of redundancy and 19 April 2018 NTEU dispute notice regarding the 18 April 2018 ‘change proposal’ were separate matters requiring separate authorisation under the agreement – Full Bench found appeal had no practical utility as the dispute over the 18 April 2018 change proposal was resolved – also no issue of correct interpretation of the agreement arose as it was accepted the NTEU was acting in the capacity of a representative of affected employee under clause 44(c) – Full Bench also found NTEU representation of employees at the 17 April 2018 meetings also related to the dispute raised by NTEU on 19 April 2018 – permission to appeal refused. Appeal by James Cook University against decision of Booth C of 5 June 2018 [[2018] FWC 3282] Re: National Tertiary Education Industry Union
