Commonwealth Numbered Acts

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS REFORM ACT 1993 No. 98 of 1993 - SECT 80

80. After section 334 of the Principal Act the following section is inserted:
Employees not to be dismissed etc. for engaging in industrial action

"334A.(1) The object of this section is to give effect, in certain respects,
to Australia's international obligation to provide for a right to strike. This
obligation arises as mentioned in section 170PA.

"(2) An employer must not dismiss an employee, injure an employee in his or
her employment, or alter the position of an employee to the employee's
prejudice, merely because the employee has engaged, or is proposing to engage,
in industrial action in relation to an industrial dispute that has been
notified to the Commission or that the Commission has found to exist. Penalty:

   (a)  in the case of an individual-5 penalty units; or

   (b)  in the case of a body corporate-10 penalty units.

"(3) Subsection (2) does not apply if the industrial action has involved or is
likely to involve:

   (a)  personal injury; or

   (b)  wilful or reckless destruction of, or damage to, property; or

   (c)  the unlawful taking, keeping or use of property.

"(4) Subsection (2) does not apply in relation to an employee included in a
class of employees prescribed by the regulations.

"(5) Regulations may not prescribe a class of employees for the purposes of
subsection (4) unless the exclusion of employees in that class from the
operation of subsection (2) is consistent with Australia's international
obligation referred to in subsection (1).

"(6) In a prosecution for an offence against subsection (2), it is not
necessary for the prosecutor to prove the defendant's reason for the action
charged or the intent with which the defendant took the action charged, but it
is a defence to the prosecution if the defendant proves that the action was
not motivated solely by the reason, or taken with the sole intent, stated in
the charge.

"(7) If an employer is convicted of an offence against subsection (2), the
Court may order the employer:

   (a)  if the offence was constituted by dismissing an employee-to reinstate
        the person dismissed to the position that the person occupied
        immediately before the dismissal or to a position no less favourable
        than that position; and

   (b)  in any case-to pay, to the person dismissed, injured or prejudiced,
        compensation for loss suffered as a result of the dismissal, injury or
        prejudice.

"(8) The rights of and relating to reinstatement that are conferred on a
person by this section do not limit any other rights of the person.".