C2005/5879, Transcript of Proceedings [2006] AIRCTrans 66 (11 January 2006)

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

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Workplace Relations Act 1996 13945-1

COMMISSIONER RAFFAELLI

C2005/5879

APPLICATION BY AUSTRALIAN MARITIME OFFICERS’ UNION, THE
s.113 - Application to vary an Award
(C2005/5879)

SYDNEY

3.29PM, MONDAY, 12 DECEMBER 2005

PN1

MR J WYDELL: I appear on behalf of the Australian Maritime Officers' Union.

PN2

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes, Mr Wydell.

PN3

MR WYDELL: If you can just give me a minute, Commissioner, I have just got to organise a couple of documents. Excuse me, Commissioner, may I have a minute just to talk to Mr Powter, I am not sure whether he is appearing in these or not.

PN4

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN5

MR WYDELL: Excuse me, Commissioner, there seems to be some confusion as to whether Mr Powter has got instructions to appear in all three of those matters or whether it is just the LJ agreement at the end, and I wonder if we might get a short adjournment?

PN6

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes, okay, we will adjourn for a few minutes.

<SHORT ADJOURNMENT [3.30PM]
<RESUMED [3.36PM]

PN7

MR WYDELL: Yes, I thank you, Commissioner. Thank you for the short adjournment, we were able to get instructions off Mr Jeffreys from Cement Australia. This is an application to vary the list of employer respondents in the Maritime Industry Seagoing Award to vary the way Cementco Shipping Pty Ltd to Cement Australia Pty Ltd. I am not sure whether the Commission has had time to read the application. Would you like me to take you through it?

PN8

THE COMMISSIONER: No, it is pretty straight forward, isn't it?

PN9

MR WYDELL: Yes. Commissioner, if I may, I might just hand up a number of documents.

PN10

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN11

MR WYDELL: You will see there one of the first documents up there is a letter serving the applications on both the Cement Australia entities. You will see that there are also photocopies of a number of the registered post slips. Look, I am sorry I didn't prepare a statement of service, but I hope that that will be sufficient for you.

PN12

One of the other items that I handed up to you, sir, is a ASX search and if I could just take you to page 6 of that search and if we go down the dates on the left hand column you will see at about the middle of the page there from 3 December 2004 there is a notification of resolution converting to a propriety company and then you will see that on 6 December that there is an application for change of company status, conversion of company from a limited company to a propriety limited company.

PN13

Commissioner, also you should have there is two other previous pieces of correspondence from the company to the Australian Maritime Officers' Union and if you look up at the top left hand corner there you will see that they are headed Cementco Shipping and if you look underneath there of course you will see a division of Queensland Cement Limited.

PN14

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN15

MR WYDELL: If you follow the ACN number through on the top of those documents through the ASX search here you will see that we are in fact talking about the same entity.

PN16

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes.

PN17

MR WYDELL: Indeed, one of the other documents I handed up to you there before was a copy of the statutory declaration of Craig Jeffreys which we will use in the certification matter which is two down the list and you will see there, of course, at 1.2 it says:

PN18

What is the name of this business?

PN19

And he says here "Cementco Shipping" but names the two employers up in 1.1 as Cement Australia (Queensland) Pty Ltd and as Cement Australia Pty Ltd.

PN20

So from what I have been able to ascertain from previous versions of the Maritime Industry Seagoing Award, it would appear that Cementco Shipping Pty Ltd has appeared in all the versions of the award back to 1983 and it is the AMOUs submission that the employer was actually incorrectly described back there because Cementco Shipping as you can see from the statutory declaration and the two letters, there actually appears more to be a trading name and that trading name was more properly a division of Queensland Cement Limited which, of course, is now changed its name so hence the reason for our application to vary the award to remove how should we say it might be ambiguous or uncertain in identifying the correct employer and on the basis of that, Commissioner, we would ask you to grant the application in the terms sought.

PN21

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes, thank you, Mr Wydell. Yes, Mr Powter, you are representing?

PN22

MR POWTER: Yes, Commissioner, I have instructions from the company officer, Mr Craig Jeffreys to consent to the application to the variation of the award to correctly identify the company as the proper named respondent. I will leave my submissions at that if I may?

PN23

THE COMMISSIONER: Yes, thank you. This is an application to vary the award so that the list of employer respondents is changed in this instance from Cementco Shipping Pty Ltd to Cement Australia (Queensland) Pty Ltd. In the circumstances the variation will be made and it is sufficient that it operates from today's date, 12 December, and will remain in force for a period of six months. These proceedings are now adjourned.

<ADJOURNED INDEFINITELY [3.42PM]