Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act (No. 2) 1914 (Cth)

COMMONWEALTH CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION (No. 2).

No. 18 of 1914.

An Act to amend the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904–1911 and the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1914.

[Assented to 7th December, 1914.]

BE it enacted by the King’s Moat Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—

Short title and citation.

1.—(1.) This Act may be cited as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act (No. 2) 1914.

(2.) The Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904–1911, as amended by the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1914 (No. 5 of 1914) is in this Act referred to as the Principal Act.

(3.) The Principal Act, as amended by this Act, may be cited as he Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904–1914.

(4.) Sub-section (3.) of section one of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1914 (No. 5 of 1914) is hereby repealed.

2. Sections nine and ten of the Principal Act are repealed, and the following section is substituted in their stead :—

Injuring employee or employer on account of industrial action.

“9.—(1.) An employer shall not dismiss an employee, or injure him in his employment, or alter his position to his prejudice, by reason of the circumstance that the employee—

(a) is an officer or member of an organization, or of an association that has applied to be registered as an organization; or

(b) is entitled to the benefit of an industrial agreement or an award; or

(c) has appeared as a witness, or has given any evidence, in a proceeding under this Act.

Penalty: Fifty pounds.

“(2.) An employee shall not cease work in the service of his employer by reason of the circumstance that the employer—

(a) is an officer or member of an organization, or of an association that has applied to be registered as an organization; or

(b) is entitled to the benefit of an industrial agreement or an award ; or

(c) has appeared as a witness, or has given any evidence, in a proceeding under this Act.

Penalty: Twenty-five pounds.

“(3.) No proceeding for an offence against this section shall be instituted without the leave of the President or the Registrar.

“(4.) In any proceeding for an offence against this section, if all the facts and circumstances constituting the offence, other than the reason for the defendant’s action, are proved, it shall lie upon the defendant to prove that he was not actuated by the reason alleged in the charge.

“(5.) The Attorney-General may direct that the whole or any part of any penalty recovered under this section may be paid to the person injured by the offence.”

Cognizance of dispute.

3.Section nineteen of the Principal Act is amended by inserting in paragraph (b), after the word “organization,” the words “,or by an association registered for the time being as an organization,”.

4. After section nineteen of the Principal Act the following section is inserted :—

Plaint to be deemed plaint of organization named therein.

“19a. A plaint by which an industrial dispute is submitted to the Court shall be deemed to have been submitted by the organization by which it purports to have been submitted unless evidence is given on behalf of that organization that the plaint was not in fact submitted by that organization.”

Certificate of Registrar.

5.Section twenty-one of the Principal Act is amended by omitting the words “exists and is”, and inserting in their stead the words “exists, or is threatened or impending or probable, as”.

6.The Principal Act is amended by inserting after section twenty-one the following section:—

Application to High Court for declaration of existence of dispute.

“21aa.—(1.) When an alleged industrial dispute is submitted to the Court—

(a) in the case of a dispute submitted to the Court by plain—the complainant or respondent organization or association; and

(b) in any other case—any party to the proceeding or the Registrar,

may apply to the High Court, for a decision on the question whether the dispute or any part thereof exists, or is threatened or impending or probable, as an industrial dispute extending beyond the limits of any one State or on any question of law arising in relation to the dispute or to the proceeding or to any award or order of the Court.

“(2.) The High Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the question.

“(3.) The jurisdiction of the High Court under this section may be exercised by any Justice of the High Court sitting in Chambers.

“(4.) The decision of the Justice on the question shall be final and conclusive, and shall not be subject to any appeal to the High Court in its appellate jurisdiction, and shall not be challenged, appealed against, reviewed, quashed, or called in question, or be subject to prohibition mandamus or injunction, in any court on any account whatever.”

7. The Principal Act is amended by inserting after section twenty-one a the following section:—

List of members and officers to be evidence.

“21b. A list of the members and officers of an organization or association filed with the Registrar on behalf of the organization or association shall be evidence that the persons named in the list were, at the date when the list was filed, members and officers of the association, and that such officers were duly appointed.”

Amendment of s. 22.

8. Section twenty-two of the Principal Act is amended by adding at the end thereof the following sub-section :—

“(2.) A certificate by the Registrar in accordance “with paragraphs (a) or (b) or (c)of sub-section (1.) of this section shall be conclusive evidence of the facts stated therein.”

Agreement in lieu of award.

9. Section twenty-four of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by inserting in sub-section (1.), before the words “the parties” where they first occur, the words “all or any of”; and

(b) by omitting from that sub-section the words “the parties to the dispute,” and inserting in their stead the words “the parties to the agreement,”.

10. Section twenty-nine of the Principal Act is amended by omitting paragraph (b), and inserting in its stead the following paragraphs :—

Persons bound by award.

“(b) all parties who have been summoned to appear as parties to the dispute, or required to answer the claim, whether they have appeared or answered or not, unless the Court is of opinion that they were improperly made parties;

(ba) in the case of employers, any successor, or any assignee or transmittee of the business of a party bound by the award, including any corporation which has acquired or taken over the business of such a party;”

Amendment of s. 31.

11.Section thirty-one of the Principal Act is amended by omitting from sub-section (1.) the words “prohibition or mandamus” and inserting in their stead the words “prohibition mandamus or injunction.”

 

Powers of Court.

12.Section thirty-eight of the Principal Act is amended by inserting after paragraph (d) the following paragraph:—

“(da) to order compliance with any term of an order or award proved to the satisfaction of the Court to have been broken or not observed.”

Registration of organizations.

13.Section fifty-five of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by inserting after the word “industry” (last occurring) in paragraph (a)of sub-section (1.) the following proviso :—

“Provided that an association of employers may be registered as an organization notwithstanding that it contains, in addition to employers in or in connexion with the industry, such other persons, whether employers in the industry or not, as have been appointed officers of the association and admitted as members thereof”; and

(b) by adding at the end of paragraph (b) of sub-section (1.) the words “, together with such other persons, whether employees in the industry or not, as have been appointed officers of the association and admitted as members thereof.”

Power of organization to change statement of industry.

14. Section fifty-eight aof the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by inserting, after the words “change its name,” the words “or change the constitution of the organization including the description of the industry in connexion with which it is registered”; and

(b) by omitting the words “of name.”

Cancellation of registration.

15. Section sixty of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by omitting the words “shall order,” and inserting in their stead the words “may, if in its discretion it thinks fit, order”; and

(b) by inserting after sub-section (1.) the following subsection :—

“(1a.) Where the ground of the application is a defect in the rules of the organization, the Court may, if in its discretion it thinks fit, instead of ordering the registration of the organization to be cancelled in the first instance direct the organization within a specified time to alter its rules so as to bring them into conformity with the requirements of the Act; and if at the expiration of the time specified the rules have not been altered accordingly the Court may then order the registration of the organization to be cancelled, and it shall be cancelled accordingly.”

Registration deemed to have been duly effected.

16.