Caden Group Pty Ltd v Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association

Caden Group Pty Ltd (the applicant) sought judicial review of a decision made by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (the respondent) to refuse to register a proposed amendment to the applicant's enterprise agreement. The application was heard in the Federal Court of Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the respondent's refusal to register the amendment was lawful. Specifically, the Court had to determine if the amendment, which sought to introduce a new clause regarding the payment of redundancy entitlements, contravened the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) by purporting to allow for the retrospective application of redundancy payments.

Judge Riley found that the respondent's refusal was justified. The Court reasoned that section 186 of the Fair Work Act requires that an enterprise agreement, or an amendment to it, must not contravene the Act. The proposed amendment, by seeking to apply redundancy entitlements retrospectively to employees who had already left the applicant's employment prior to the amendment's commencement, was found to be inconsistent with the prospective nature of industrial instruments and the principles of statutory interpretation regarding retrospective operation of legislation. The Court concluded that the amendment, if registered, would have had an unlawful retrospective effect, thereby contravening the Fair Work Act.

Consequently, the Court dismissed the application for judicial review.