Mount Isa Mines Limited; The Australian Workers’ Union; “Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union” known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU)

[2017] FWCFB 3882

[2017] FWCFB 3882

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009
s.137F—Orders reflecting State representation orders

Mount Isa Mines Limited;
The Australian Workers’ Union;
“Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union” known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU)
(C2017/2411)

SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT HAMBERGER
DEPUTY PRESIDENT GOSTENCNIK
DEPUTY PRESIDENT COLMAN SYDNEY, 3 AUGUST 2017

Application for Order reflecting State representation orders.

[1] On 5 May 2017, Mount Isa Mines Limited (MIM), the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) and the “Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union” known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) (together the applicants) jointly applied to the Fair Work Commission (the Commission) under s.137F of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 (the RO Act) for an order reflecting the State representation order in respect of employees of MIM.

[2] The State representation order in question (the State Order) was made by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission on 12 September 1995. It granted representational rights to the Australian Workers’ Union of Employees, Queensland (AWUQ) and the Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union of Employees, Queensland (AMWUQ) in respect of employees of MIM, demarcated their respective coverage of those employees, and expressly denied representational rights to various other employee organisations.

[3] The order sought by the applicants replicates the effect of the State Order. It is in the following terms:

‘A. This order shall be known as the Mount Isa Mines Lease Representation Order 2017.

B. This order shall apply only to employees of Mount Isa Mines Ltd employed within Mount Isa (Employees) and it shall not apply to employees of contractors.

C. The Australian Workers’ Union has the right, to the exclusion of all other registered organisations, to represent the industrial interests of all Employees with the exception of those employees engaged in:

(i) the Mines Power Station;
(ii) Central Engineering;
(iii) the Rebuild Workshop;
(iv) the Site Services Workshop managed by Central Services; and
(v) the fans and refrigeration area of the Copper Concentrator.

D. The ‘Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union’ known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) has the right, to the exclusion of all other registered organisations, to represent the industrial interests of all Employees who are engaged in:

(i) the Mines Power Station;
(ii) Central Engineering;
(iii) the Rebuild Workshop;
(iv) the Site Services Workshop managed by Central Services; and
(v) the fans and refrigeration area of the Copper Concentrator.’

[4] This application was prompted by the fact that from 1 January 2017, the Australian Workers’ Union of Employees, Queensland (AWUQ) and the Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union of Employees, Queensland (AMWUQ) were no longer transitionally recognised as registered organisations in the federal industrial relations system. The applicants submit that granting their application would maintain the status quo in respect of the delineation of coverage between the two applicant unions, being the federal counterparts of the AWUQ and AMWUQ.

[5] We caused the application to be served on the following bodies:

• the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia;


• Electrical Trades Union of Employees, Queensland;


• the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union;


• the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Industrial Union of Employees, Queensland;


• the Australian Council of Trade Unions; and


• the Queensland Council of Unions.

[6] We directed any body which opposed the application to file a position paper setting out the basis of its opposition by 14 July 2017. No such position papers were received. A mention was then held on 18 July 2017, during which all three applicants confirmed that they too had received no position papers or other notifications that any particular body opposed the application.

[7] Section 137F of the RO Act states:

‘137F FWC may make orders reflecting State representation orders

(1) If:

(a)  the eligibility rules of an organisation of employees have been altered with the consent of the General Manager under section 158A; and

(b)  because of the alteration, members of an association of employees that is registered under a State or Territory industrial law (a State registered association ) have become eligible for membership of the organisation; and

(c)  immediately before the alteration took effect, an order (a State representation order ) was in force that:

(i)  was made by a State industrial authority in relation to the State registered association; and

(ii)  was an order of the same kind as, or of a similar kind to, an order that the FWC could make under this Chapter in relation to an organisation;

the FWC may, on application by the organisation or by a party to the State representation order, make an order in relation to the organisation that is to the same effect, or substantially the same effect, as the State representation order.

(2)  The order under subsection (1) applies to each organisation that is:

(a) a federal counterpart of the State registered association; or

(b)  a federal counterpart of any other association of employees:

(i) that is registered under a State or Territory industrial law; and

(ii) to which the State representation order applied.’

[8] On the basis of the information before us, we consider that the requirements in s.137F(1) of the RO Act are satisfied, and that we should make an order in the terms sought by the applicants. That order will issue concurrently with this decision.

SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT

Printed by authority of the Commonwealth Government Printer

<Price code A, PR594804>