ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS – notice of representational rights – ss.173, 185 Fair Work Act 2009 – application for approval of enterprise agreement – whether applicant complied with obligation to provide Notice of employee representational rights (NERR) under s.173 – employer sought to rely on NERR given to employees with respect to an earlier agreement that Commission declined to approve – no new NERR issued even though clear new notification time triggered – Lee C held period of notice reasonable depending on circumstances and in context of negotiation – not a fixed amount irrespective of circumstances – there was a high level of engagement, involvement and communication with employees about bargaining and approval process and employee turnover was not high in circumstances – Commission satisfied applicant given employees NERR within reasonable period under s.173(4). Wangaratta Rural City Council Enterprise Agreement 2017-2021
August 3, 2018
ANTI-BULLYING – reasonable management action – s.604 Fair Work Act 2009 – appeal – Full Bench – application for stop bullying order – whether conduct was bullying behaviour – reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable manner – no arguable case of error – no public interest – permission to appeal refused. Appeal by Blagojevic against decision [2018] FWC 2906 of Saunders C at Newcastle on 23 May 2018 Re: AGL Macquarie P/L and Anor
August 3, 2018
ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS – dispute about matter arising under agreement – s.604 Fair Work Act 2009 – appeal – Full Bench – appeal against decision dealing with dispute settlement procedure in BMA Enterprise Agreement 2012 – employee not permitted to attend work and not paid due to drivers licence suspension – Full Bench held Deputy President erred when determining question of whether employee had a legal entitlement to payment – Full Bench held answer must be no – permission to appeal granted – appeal upheld on point relating to question. Appeal by BHP Coal P/L t/a BHP Billiton against decision [2018] FWC 1453 of Asbury DP at Brisbane on 9 March 2018 Re: Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union
August 2, 2018
The Fair Work Commission lawlist for today also includes: Hitachi Construction Machinery (Australia) Pty Ltd (Reid & Garland), Trinity Smash Repairs (Longmore), Kytonlea Pty Limited (Duckett), Exceed and Excel Education Pty Ltd (Boddey), Goplay Commercial Playgrounds (Barber), Qube Logistics Pty Ltd (Quigley), ISS Facility Service (Virk), Mining One Pty Ltd (Kurucuk), KDR Victoria Pty Ltd (Scheffers, Mroan), Electrical Home Aids Pty Ltd (Shachar), Flexirent Capital Pty Ltd (Kronk), Jani-King Australasia Hospitality Pty Ltd (Mayhew), Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (Rennie & Fraser and Others), Linfox Armaguard Pty Ltd (Bedfordm, Symes), Serco Group Pty Ltd (Maher), Kirrihill Wines Pty Ltd (Maloney).
August 2, 2018
Twenty-two unfair dismissal/labour dispute applications are filed for hearing in the Fair Work Commission today. The list is: City Edge Dandenong Apartment (Byleveld), Grafton Motor Group Pty Ltd (Clayden), Davibray Pty Limited T/F B & S CarruthersTrust (Harding), Westselect Services Pty Ltd (Bizzaca), Ventura Home Group WA (Dixon), P&F Gangemi F/T (Ashdown), Boral Resources (NSW) Pty Limited & Burton (Kerslake), Biripi Aboriginal Corporation Medical Centre (Gleeson), Thai Waterfront Restaurant (Inkum), The LEukaemia Foundation of Australia Limited (Gasson), Asset Restorations (Georges), The Trustee for HUlsboisch Family Trust Pty Ltd (Monem), Interactive Cabling Pty Ltd (Wynd), Serco Australia Pty Ltd (Morgan), Australia Post (Gray), Kaefer Integrated Services Pty Ltd (Goulding), Carpet Logistics Group Pty Ltd (Shannon), Magnetic Automation Pty Ltd (Golland), Court Services Victoria (Galbraith), Linfox Armaguard Pty Ltd (Bedford, Symes), Anglicare North Queensland Limited (McEwan).
July 31, 2018
An application for approval of the Downer EDI Mining – Blasting Services NSW Coal Enterprise Agreement 2018 (S.185 – Application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement) will be determined by Commissioner Johns in Court 2 – Level 6 in Melbourne at noon.
July 31, 2018
A fleet of applications is today lined up before the Fair Work Commission. The list includes: Alice Springs Town Council (Fitzsimmons), East Yarra Friendly Society Pty Ltd & M Verrocchi (Mitchell, West Australian News (Perreau), Andrew Valerio & Sons Funeral Directors (Maestrale), Paston Pty Ltd (Masivoivoi), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Conway), Tee-Zed Products Pty Ltd (Manna), PJ SAS Trading Pty Ltd (Pawsey), Burswood Nominees (Blandford), Lek Supply Pty Ltd (Jackman), WMC Health Pty Ltd (Krishnan), Australian Postal Corporation (Ong), Country Fire Authority & Scragg (Dennis, Heafield, Horton, Lilley), San Remo Bakehouse (Ellis), Scissor and Roc Hairdressing Salon (Hume), Metro Chemicals Pty Ltd (Parziani), Shane Leigh Bishop and Sandra Bishop (McTaggart), Regis Aged Care Pty Ltd (Hallwood), Trustee for the Two Towers Discretionary Trust (Wallis), Australian General Practice Network Ltd (Andrushkina), Community Accommodation and Respite Agency Inc (Kumarapperuma), Hill Street Grocer (Burt), Virgin Australia Regional Airline (Collier), Ruskon Pty Ltd (Sinclair), Midway Metals Pty Ltd (Pham), Mining One Pty Ltd (Kurucuk), Zwift International Pty Ltd (Gabrielson), Sam Technology Engineers Pty Ltd (Bernadou), Mimva Pty Ltd (Simeon), Yarra Trams (Espinoza), Ultra Thoroughbreds (Koenig), Acciona Infrastructure Australia Pty Ltd (Abbott), Airlie Beach Dental (Fourie), KS Migration and Education Services Pty Ltd (Park), Westpac Banking Corporation (Deng), University of Sydney (Rahim & Macdonald), United Protestant Association of NSW Ltd (Grabovsky), Sydney Trains (Singh), Lobethal Abattoirs Pty Ltd (Gangell), Granite Services International Inc (McGufficke), Silver Chain (Stewart), Serco Australia Pty Ltd (Bottomley), Pema Projects (Australia) Pty Ltd (Privitelli), Maxitrans Australia Pty Ltd (McKechnie), Compass Group (Australia) Pty Ltd (Mitchell), Gippsland & East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-operative Ltd (Sullivan), KDR Victoria Pty Ltd (Templeton), Ambulance Victoria (Humphrey), Electrical Home Aids Pty Ltd (Shachar), Sea Road Logistics (Glumac), Qantas Ground Services Pty Ltd (Kennedy), Qantas Airways Limited (Edwards & Waterhouse and Another), The Ba Pe Medical Service Trust (Jensen), Westminister School Inc (Agar), TAFE NSW (Sebben), DGP Services Pty Ltd (Krljar), Interactive Cabling Pty Ltd (Wynd), HBMC Services Pty Ltd (Temoananui), Pascoe’s Gas, Water & Electrical (Johnson), Monash Health (Belyuga), Country Fire Authority (Dennis, Heafield, Horton, Lilley), Jamil S.J.S. Pty Ltd & Jimee (Ali), Sihot Asia/Pacific Pty Ltd (Scaini), PERC Pty Ltd (Barratt-Hassett), Lycamobile Pvt Ltd (Gnanaratnam), Commonwealth of Australia (through the Department of Home Affairs) & Wall and Others (McClean), D & H Fraser Family Trust (Lawton), Sirius Well Manufacturing Services Australia Pty Ltd (Richardson), Baptist Union of Queensland (Whitby), Ozcare (Nguyen).
July 27, 2018
CASE PROCEDURES – revoke or vary decision – s.603 Fair Work Act 2009 – Full Bench – application to revoke an order made under s.424 terminating industrial action – since late 2014 and until 7 December 2016 The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia (CEPU) and the AMWU (collectively ‘the Unions’), had been bargaining with Esso for a proposed enterprise agreement or agreements that would replace the Esso Gippsland (Longford and Long Island Point) Enterprise Agreement 2011 (Longford & LIP Agreement) and the Esso Offshore Enterprise Agreement 2011 (Offshore Agreement) – the AWU organised, and many of its members engaged in, various forms of industrial action directed against Esso – AWU maintained that all such industrial action was protected industrial action – Esso maintained that aspects of the industrial action were not protected action – disputed industrial action included bans on the performance of equipment testing, air freeing and leak testing – Esso obtained a number of orders from the Commission directed to the AWU stopping unprotected industrial action – obtained an order on 6 March 2015 (IA Order) – in contravention of the IA Order, the AWU continued to organise industrial action – Esso commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia – the Court rejected Esso’s claim – Esso appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court – The Full Court dismissed the appeal on 25 May 2016 – on 21 June 2016, Esso filed in the High Court of Australia, an application for special leave to appeal particular orders of the judgment of the Full Court – on 30 November 2016, the Unions served on Esso notices of intention to take protected industrial action – on 7 December 2016, Vice President Watson made an order to terminate the protected industrial action [PR588352] – the applications giving rise to the Order were made by the Minister for Industrial Relations for the State of Victoria (The Minister) – Esso’s special leave application to the High Court had not, at this stage, been heard – during the course of hearing the Minister’s applications, Esso accepted that the Full Court’s judgment in Esso Australia P/L v Australian Workers’ Union was binding on the Commission at that time – this Full Bench was convened to deal with making an ensuing workplace determination as contemplated by s.266 of the FW Act – on 6 December 2017, the High Court delivered judgment in Esso Australia P/L v The Australian Workers’ Union in which a majority of the Court allowed an appeal by Esso, holding that the industrial action organised by the AWU in relation to a replacement enterprise agreement or agreements for, relevantly the Longford & LIP Agreement and the Offshore Agreement was not protected industrial action subsequent to the AWU’s contravention on 6 March 2015 of the IA Order – Esso has applied under s.603 for an order revoking the Order made by Vice President Watson on 7 December 2016 – The Minister and the Unions oppose revocation – Full Bench held that taking unprotected industrial action should not result in the making of a workplace determination – the discretionary matters which point in favour of the exercise of our discretion to revoke the Order outweigh those going the other way – Order revoked with effect on and from the date on which it was made (7 December 2016) – parties encouraged to engage in immediate discussions with a view to concluding an enterprise agreement to replace the Offshore Agreement – Full Bench prepared to advise the parties in conference as to its views on the likely form of a workplace determination that would have been made – prepared to set out the likely form of a workplace determination that we would have made in a recommendation if the parties provided an indication that they would each accept the recommendation and allow employees the opportunity to vote to approve an enterprise agreement consistent with that recommendation. Esso Australia P/L v “Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union” known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and Ors
