Re Finance Sector Union of Australia & Anor; Ex parte Illaton Pty Ltd; Finance Sector Union of Australia & Anor; Ex parte Swartz

In matters M47 and M48 of 1992, the applicants, Illaton Pty Ltd and Michael Glenn Swartz and others, sought writs of prohibition and certiorari against members of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The Finance Sector Union of Australia was also a respondent. The Commission members indicated they would abide by the Court's decision.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the logs of claims served by the Australian Bank Employees' Union (ABEU), specifically the log served in January 1989 which superseded an earlier one from October 1987, constituted a bona fide demand for the conditions set out therein. The applicants contended that the non-acceptance of these logs did not give rise to a genuine industrial dispute.

The applicants argued that the second log, served to remedy a technical defect concerning the status of Metway (which had transitioned from a building society to a bank), did not represent a genuine demand. The Court was required to determine if the ABEU's demands were bona fide, a prerequisite for the existence of a genuine industrial dispute under the relevant legislation. The applicants' position was that if the demands were not bona fide, then no industrial dispute had arisen, and consequently, the Commission lacked jurisdiction.