Sarah Missen on Substack

Just before Christmas a number of businesses lodged submissions in the Fair Work Commission under s426 of the Fair Work Act in relation to ongoing industrial action by unions at Sydney Trains. The section basically makes the Fair Work Commission suspend protected industrial action if the action is going to cause “significant harm” to a third party. The legislation frames significant harm as threat to “damage the ongoing viability of an enterprise”; “disrupt the supply of goods or services to an enterprise”; “reduce the person’s capacity to fulfil a contractual obligation” or “cause other economic loss”. So Laundy Hotels, Merivale, Veolia Waste Services, and Luna Park all put in submissions whinging that potential industrial action could effect their ability to make money on New Years Eve. I’ve been turning this around in my mind, on two points. Section 426 basically means that if industrial action is too effective, even if it’s previously been deemed “protected” by the Fair Work Commission, the Commission has to suspend it. While bosses through Section 426 can help each other to stop industrial action; laws introduced in the 1970s prohibit secondary boycotts (best thought of as sympathy strikes or solidarity actions). The Fair Work Act allows bosses to back each other, but stops workers from being able to support each other in disputes. None of this is new information, it’s just been plaguing me how stacked against us the laws are. Finally, a few quick notes on the bosses that made these submissions about the Sydney Trains industrial action. Laundy Hotels is the family business of former Federal Liberal MP Craig Laundy; Merivale was subject of a huge wage theft case where they agreed to a “no-admission” payment of $19.25 million to former employees; Veolia Waste Services had to pay over half a million dollars in fines and shut down one of its waste management facilities after the EPA found asbestos scattered on landfill, on roads and in soil stockpiles; and Luna Park was fined in 2021 for overcrowding and breaching COVID19 social distancing rules on New Years Eve 2020. Yep, definitely all just concerned with everyone enjoying New Years Eve. Very community minded organisations. Nothing to see here at all. FULL DISCLOSURE: I am not a lawyer!