Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union v G and K O'Connor Pty Ltd

The Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union (AMIEU) brought an action against G and K O'Connor Pty Ltd in the Federal Court of Australia, seeking a declaration that the respondent had unlawfully dismissed a number of employees, and an order for reinstatement and compensation. The matter was heard on a Notice of Motion brought by the respondent, seeking to strike out parts of the applicants' Third Further Amended Statement of Claim on the basis that they constituted a new cause of action.

The central legal issue for the court was whether the proposed amendments to the statement of claim introduced new causes of action that were not permissible under the rules of court. Specifically, the respondent argued that the proposed amendments introduced claims that were outside the scope of the original pleadings and were therefore impermissible.

The court found that the proposed amendments did indeed introduce new causes of action, but that these were not impermissible. The court held that the amendments were permissible as they did not introduce new claims that were not reasonably arguable on the material before the court. The court did, however, disallow certain paragraphs of the proposed amendments that it found to be impermissible as they introduced new factual material that was not reasonably arguable. The court dismissed the respondent’s Notice of Motion, save for those parts of the proposed amendments that introduced new causes of action, which were disallowed.