Duggan v City of Karratha

In *Duggan v City of Karratha*, the Supreme Court of Western Australia considered a dispute between a casual lifeguard, Mr. Duggan, and the City of Karratha concerning the interpretation of an enterprise agreement. The central issue was whether Mr. Duggan, as a casual employee, was entitled to public holiday penalty rates for work performed on public holidays.

The court was required to determine the proper construction of the relevant provisions within the City of Karratha Enterprise Agreement 2017 (the Agreement). Specifically, the court had to ascertain whether the Agreement conferred an entitlement to public holiday penalty rates upon casual employees, or if such entitlements were limited to permanent employees.

Justice Lucev reasoned that the Agreement, when read as a whole, did not provide for the payment of public holiday penalty rates to casual employees. His Honour noted that while the Agreement stipulated a casual loading, this loading was intended to compensate casual employees for the absence of entitlements such as paid leave and redundancy pay, rather than to provide additional penalty rates for working on public holidays. The court found that the specific clauses dealing with public holidays did not expressly extend the penalty rate entitlement to casuals, and that the general provisions regarding casual employment did not implicitly create such an entitlement.

The application was dismissed.