Pine v Austress Freyssinet (Vic) Pty Ltd

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Pine v Austress Freyssinet (Vic) Pty Ltd (ACN 089 766 576) [2005] FCA 583

LISETTE PINE  -v-  AUSTRESS FREYSSINET (VIC) PTY LTD (ACN 089 766 576)

VID 1496 of 2004

RYAN J

5 MAY 2005
MELBOURNE

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY	VID 1496 of 2004

BETWEEN:	LISETTE PINE Applicant
AND:	AUSTRESS FREYSSINET (VIC) PTY LTD (ACN 089 766 576) Respondent
JUDGE:	RYAN J
DATE OF ORDER:	5 MAY 2005
WHERE MADE:	MELBOURNE

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. That a penalty of $800.00 is imposed on the respondent in respect to its contraventions of s 187AA of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) on 5 and 6 August 2003.

2. That such penalty be paid into the consolidated revenue fund.

3. That the penalty be paid within 21 days to the District Registrar of the Court in Melbourne.

Note:    Settlement and entry of orders is dealt with in Order 36 of the Federal Court Rules.

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY	VID 1496 of 2004

BETWEEN:	LISETTE PINE Applicant
AND:	AUSTRESS FREYSSINET (VIC) PTY LTD (ACN 089 766 576) Respondent
JUDGE:	RYAN J
DATE:	5 MAY 2005
PLACE:	MELBOURNE

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

1. There is before the Court an application for the imposition of penalties on the respondent under s 187AD of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) (“the Act”). Those penalties are sought for contravention of s 187AA of the Act, by making payments to four persons in relation to periods during which each of those persons engaged in industrial action. The applicant also seeks a declaration that by making each of the payments, the respondent contravened s 187AA.

2. A statement of agreed facts has been filed which discloses that each of the four persons to whom the payments were made was an employee of the respondent employed pursuant to the Austress Freyssinet (Vic) Pty Ltd and CFMEU Building and Construction Industry Collective Bargaining Agreement 2002‑2005 (“the certified agreement”). 

3. The four employees were working at the time on post-tensioning of concrete on the Concept Blue apartment building at 336 Russell Street, Melbourne (“the Concept Blue site”).  On Friday, 1 August 2003, a Mr Andrew Schouten, a labourer, was killed when a crane near which he was working struck overhead wires on a farm at Shepparton.  Apparently, there was no work scheduled to be performed by the respondent at the Concept Blue site on the next three days.  The 2nd August was a Sunday and the next day, Monday, 3 August, was a rostered day off under the certified agreement.

4. Work at the Concept Blue site resumed as normal on the next day, Tuesday, 5 August, but stopped at 8.30 am when the CFMEU conducted a site safety audit pursuant to its “on-site fatalities policy and procedure”.  Each of the respondent’s four employees stopped work at that time and did not resume work at all during that day, Tuesday, 5 August.  On the following day, Wednesday, 6 August, workers on the site, including, as…