Amalgamated Engineering Union v The Metal Trades Employers' Association

The Amalgamated Engineering Union sought a determination from the High Court of Australia regarding the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration to make an award binding its members employed by the Metal Trades Employers' Association and its members, or by individual Queensland employers. The dispute arose from a log of demands served by the Metal Trades Employers' Association in November 1933, concerning an industrial dispute (No. 427 of 1933).

The primary legal issues before the High Court were whether individual Queensland employers, who were not members of the Metal Trades Employers' Association at the time of the dispute's inception, were parties to the industrial dispute, and consequently, whether the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration had jurisdiction to make an award binding them or their employees. A related question concerned the jurisdiction to bind employers who joined the Metal Trades Employers' Association after the dispute had arisen.

Evatt J. applied the principle established in *Burwood Cinema Ltd. v. Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees' Association*, holding that a registered employers' organisation can make demands on behalf of all its members, including those who join after the dispute has commenced. The Court reasoned that the November 1933 log of demands was not expressly limited to existing members and should be presumed to apply to all who were or might become members of the Metal Trades Employers' Association. Therefore, employers who joined the Association after the dispute arose could lawfully be bound by an award. However, the Court found that individual Queensland employers who were not members of the Association and had not properly become parties to the dispute could not be bound by an award.

The Court declared that the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration had jurisdiction to make an award binding members of the Amalgamated Engineering Union employed in Queensland by members of the Metal Trades Employers' Association, including those who joined the Association after the dispute arose. Conversely, the Court held that it had no jurisdiction to make an award binding members of the Union employed by employers not included in the membership of the Metal Trades Employers' Association. Liberty to apply was reserved for the Toowoomba Foundry Co. in the event it ceased to be a member of the Association.