Qantas Airways Limited & Anor v Transport Workers Union of Australia

The High Court of Australia considered an appeal by Qantas Airways Limited and Network Aviation Pty Ltd (Qantas) against a decision of the Full Federal Court concerning the interpretation of enterprise agreements and the scope of industrial action. The dispute arose from the Transport Workers' Union of Australia (TWU) seeking to represent employees of Network Aviation, a subsidiary of Qantas, under an enterprise agreement that Qantas argued did not cover those employees. The TWU had sought to bargain for a new enterprise agreement for these employees, which Qantas resisted, leading to industrial action by the TWU.

The central legal issues before the High Court were whether the existing Qantas enterprise agreement applied to the Network Aviation employees, and consequently, whether the TWU was entitled to initiate bargaining for a new agreement and engage in protected industrial action in relation to those employees. Qantas contended that the Network Aviation employees were not covered by the Qantas enterprise agreement, and therefore, the TWU's actions were not protected industrial action under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

The High Court, in a joint judgment, found that the existing Qantas enterprise agreement did not cover the Network Aviation employees. Their Honours reasoned that the language of the agreement, particularly its definition of "employees covered by this Agreement," did not extend to employees of a separate corporate entity like Network Aviation, even though it was a subsidiary of Qantas. The Court applied principles of contractual interpretation to the enterprise agreement, emphasizing that the plain meaning of the words used, in their context, determined its scope. The Court held that the TWU was not entitled to initiate bargaining for a new enterprise agreement for these employees, and therefore, the industrial action taken was not protected.

The High Court allowed the appeal and set aside the orders of the Full Federal Court.