Re Federated Storemen and Packers Union of Australia; Ex parte Wool Dumpers (Victoria) Limited

Wooldumpers (Victoria) Limited sought a writ of prohibition against Mr Commissioner Caesar of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, and the Federated Storemen and Packers Union of Australia. The dispute concerned the Commissioner's intention to arbitrate a claim for the reinstatement of a former employee, Mr King, whose employment had been terminated by Wooldumpers with payment in lieu of notice. Wooldumpers contended that the termination was lawful under the relevant award and that the Commissioner lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the Commissioner had the jurisdiction to deal with the dispute regarding Mr King's reinstatement. Wooldumpers argued that the dispute was a localised matter concerning a single employee's termination, and that no interstate dispute existed to found the Commission's jurisdiction. The Union, however, contended that the dispute fell within the ambit of earlier interstate disputes created by the service and rejection of logs of claims in 1985 and 1986, which had led to dispute findings by the Commission.

The Court was required to determine if the Commissioner's proposed arbitration of the reinstatement claim was validly based on the earlier interstate dispute findings. The Commissioner had indicated an intention to proceed under a dispute finding stemming from the non-acceptance of the 1985 log of claims. The legal principle at stake was the extent to which a subsequent, potentially localised, dispute could be considered part of an existing interstate dispute for the purposes of the Commission's jurisdiction under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act.