BP2006/2859, Transcript of Proceedings [2006] AIRCTrans 844 (28 June 2006)

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

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Workplace Relations Act 1996 15270-1
15271-1

SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT ACTON

BP2006/2859 BP2006/2861

COMMUNICATIONS, ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONIC, ENERGY, INFORMATION, POSTAL, PLUMBING AND ALLIED SERVICES UNION OF AUSTRALIA
AND
CADBURY SCHWEPPES AUSTRALIA LTD
s.451(1) - Application for order for protected action ballot to be held
(BP2006/2859)

AUTOMOTIVE, FOOD, METALS, ENGINEERING, PRINTING AND KINDRED INDUSTRIES UNION
AND
CADBURY SCHWEPPES AUSTRALIA LTD
s.451(1) - Application for order for protected action ballot to be held
(BP2006/2861)

MELBOURNE

12.04PM, THURSDAY, 08 JUNE 2006

PN1

MR G BORENSTEIN: I appear on behalf of the CEPU along with MR G ARNETT from the CEPU who is the relevant organiser.

PN2

MR B TERZIC: Your Honour, there are two representatives for the AMWU or the organisation known as AMWU, myself and MR T MAVROMATIS.

PN3

MR C GARDNER: I seek leave to appear on behalf of Cadbury Schweppes Australia Ltd and with me from the company is MR B HALL and from my firm, MR D FARRANT.

PN4

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Is there any objection to the application for leave to appear?

PN5

MR BORENSTEIN: No, your Honour.

PN6

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Leave is granted. Mr Borenstein.

PN7

MR BORENSTEIN: I might just ask what your Honour's expectations are of today. I've spoken to my friend and he has somewhat different expectations, but we are seeking the order to be made today in finality. My friend has raised with me, if he doesn't mind me saying, that he seeks today just to only be about making an order about notifying employees at the workplace. We would submit that we should proceed with this matter and an order can be made as such and a notice be place and certainly if employees seek to take up the option of coming along, a time can be made possibly tomorrow for them to make any submissions that they wish to make, but we doubt that there will be any such persons who will make submissions and certainly in our communications with the stewards, there would be no such people, but I might seek your Honour's guidance on that issue or my friend may put his position.

PN8

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Before he does, Mr Terzic, have you got anything to say?

PN9

MR TERZIC: Your Honour, if we're going to be too pedantic on technicalities, I suppose somebody should seek a direction from your Honour that the two separate applications before the Commission be somehow consolidated or heard simultaneously. That would be a prudent course and an expedient course. Secondly, as to the requirement that relevant employees as defined be notified and given the opportunity to attend and make submissions, given evidence, et cetera, as required, attempts have been made by the AMWU to meet that requirement by Mr Mavromatis contacting on site representatives and asking them to put out the word, so to speak, in various ways. Mr Mavromatis can give evidence of what he has attempted to do in that regard, but at this juncture, probably the expedient course would be to have some sort of procedural conference off the record, where the parties can narrow down what issues are in dispute, what aren't in dispute and sort out how these proceedings can be managed in an efficient manner.

PN10

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you. Mr Gardner.

PN11

MR GARDNER: Yes, thank you. We were provided with a draft order which I take it that your office has seen which relates to the posting of certain notification that I gather is designed to comply with the requirement in the Act that certain persons have a reasonable opportunity to make submissions and we understood that that's what we were here for today. The Act does make a mandatory requirement that that opportunity be provided and we understand that and we want to ensure that that happens in a way which complies with the Act, so we have something to say about the nature of the proposal and how that would occur having regard to the split shift arrangements which occur on site, so that is what we understood today was about. As to the substantive application, we at this stage oppose it. I won't go into that at this stage, but needless to say, we feel there are grounds to do so, so it really is this preliminary question that needs to be dealt with.

PN12

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: My objective today was to see how much of a mess this is going to be.

PN13

MR TERZIC: I am sorry, your Honour, I missed that.

PN14

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: See how much of a mess this is going to be and you've suggested to me it is going to be one.

PN15

MR TERZIC: It's going to be a little mess, not a big mess.

PN16

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: What I want to do is sort out with the parties the form of the notice to other employees about a hearing and then see the scope of the differences on any protected action ballot order that might be issued, what is your extent of disagreement on that, et cetera, whether there's jurisdictional issues and so on. They're probably all best done in conference. Is there any objection to that course?

PN17

MR TERZIC: No.

PN18

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: We'll adjourn into conference.

<NO FURTHER PROCEEDINGS RECORDED