Australian Competition & Consumer Commission v Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing & Kindred Industries Union

The case involves the Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing & Kindred Industries Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), and the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia (CEPU), collectively referred to as the unions. They are being sued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for breaching the secondary boycott provisions of the Trade Practices Act. The unions are accused of unlawfully hindering the construction of a gas plant near Orbost by maintaining a picket that prevented construction workers and vehicles delivering materials from entering the site. The unions allegedly induced and encouraged construction workers not to attend at their place of work during the picket, protesting the use of non-local labour and the use of Australian Workplace Agreements instead of negotiating certified agreements. The unions admitted to the contravention of the Act and consented to the orders sought by the ACCC. The court granted injunctions against the unions, restraining them from engaging in similar conduct in the future, and ordered them to implement a trade practices compliance program and publish a notice of the contravention and the orders made against them. The court also ordered the unions to pay pecuniary penalties and to publish advertisements in their respective journals acknowledging the contravention and the orders made against them.