Corporate Image Security & Surveillance Pty Ltd T/A CI Security

[2018] FWC 6367

[2018] FWC 6367

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

Fair Work Act 2009
s.185 - Application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement

Corporate Image Security & Surveillance Pty Ltd T/A CI Security
(AG2018/2744)

COMMISSIONER MCKINNON MELBOURNE, 23 OCTOBER 2018

Application for approval of the C I Security Enterprise Agreement 2018.

[1] Application has been made by Corporate Image Security and Surveillance Pty Ltd under s.185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act) for approval of a single enterprise agreement known as the C I Security Enterprise Agreement 2018 (the Agreement).

[2] In making a single enterprise agreement under the Act, sections 180(3) and (4) require an employer to take all reasonable steps to notify the relevant employees of the time, place and method of the vote to be held on the proposed agreement. This information must be provided to employees by the start of the access period for the agreement. ‘Access period’is defined as the 7-day period ending immediately before the start of the voting process.

[3] In CFMMEU v CBI Constructors Pty Ltd 1 (CBI), a Full Bench of the Commission found that the access period in section 180(4) means seven clear calendar days ending immediately prior to the day on which the voting process commenced.

[4] I find that voting for the Agreement commenced on 8 June 2018. That means the access period for the Agreement commenced on 1 June 2018 and the Applicant was required to take all reasonable steps to notify employees of the time, place and method of the vote by no later than 31 May 2018. I accept that the Applicant took reasonable steps to provide the requisite information to relevant employees on 1 June 2018. 2 It did so in reliance on the Commission’s “Date Calculator”, and prior to consideration of the meaning of ‘access period’ in CBI. The result was that voting commenced one day too early.

[5] The defect is not one that can be cured by an exercise of discretion. As I cannot be satisfied that the requirements of section 180(3) were met, I cannot find that the Agreement was genuinely agreed for the purposes of the Act. The result is that the Agreement cannot be approved.

[6] The application is dismissed.

COMMISSIONER

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 1   [2018] FWCFB 2732 at [42]

 2   Form F17 filed with the Commission on 15 June 2017 at Q2.5 and Attachment ‘Notice to CI Security Employees’; Email from R Graham to the Commission dated 4 October 2018