Commonwealth Numbered Acts Commonwealth Numbered Acts(1) Industrial action is action of any of the following kinds:
(a) the performance of building work by an employee in a manner different from that in which it is customarily performed, or the adoption of a practice in relation to building work by an employee, the result of which is a restriction or limitation on, or a delay in, the performance of the work;
(b) a ban, limitation or restriction on the performance of building work by an employee or on the acceptance of or offering for building work by an employee;
(c) a failure or refusal:
(i) by employees to attend work, where that work is building work; or
(ii) to perform any building work at all by employees who attend work, where that work is building work;
(d) the lockout of employees from their work by their employer, where that work is building work.
Note: In Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union v The Age Company Limited , PR946290, the Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission considered the nature of industrial action and noted that action will not be industrial in character if it stands completely outside the area of disputation and bargaining.
(2) However, industrial action does not include the following:
(a) action by employees that is authorised or agreed to, in advance and in writing, by the employer of the employees;
(b) action by an employer that is authorised or agreed to, in advance and in writing, by, or on behalf of, employees of the employer;
(c) action by an employee if:
(i) the action was based on a reasonable concern of the employee about an imminent risk to his or her health or safety; and
(ii) the employee did not unreasonably fail to comply with a direction of his or her employer to perform other available work, whether at the same or another workplace, that was safe and appropriate for the employee to perform.
When there is a lockout
(3) There is a lockout of employees from their work by an employer if the employer prevents the employees from performing work under their contracts of employment without terminating those contracts.