THE Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union is having a second try at having an enterprise order made against Hanssen Pty Ltd.
It has again filed a motion for an enterprise order before the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission, seeking to have its enterprise bargaining agreement put over Hanssen’s relevant employees, saying that the company was not bargaining in good faith.
Hanssen director Jerry Hanssen said he was not interested in negotiating with the union over an EBA at all.
He said the employees the union was seeking to have covered by the order were now on Australian Work-place Agreements and therefore the WAIRC did not have the jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Mr Hanssen said defending the original enterprise order case and the subsequent appeal cost him about $100,000 in legal fees.
The union’s first effort at having the order made against Hanssen was successful although later over-turned on appeal by the full bench of the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
In between the order being issued and the appeal case the commission stayed the order.
The Hanssen appeal was seen as something of a test case by businesses and not just those in the construction industry.
What the CFMEU had done was essentially to force its EBA onto a builder that did not want to sign an agreement with it and there were fears that other unions in different sectors could do the same thing.
There had been a hope that the appeal decision would give some clarity to business on how the orders would actually operate.
The way the Hanssen case went to the commission was something of a concern.
Mr Hanssen refused to enter into negotiations with the union and therefore found himself facing the enterprise order.
The fear among businesses is that a medium-sized business could receive a letter from the union covering its area, saying that it wants to negotiate an EBA.
The business could ignore it and find itself in the same predicament as Mr Hanssen.
However, legal experts said the case provided no clear answers for business.
It is a different story for unions.
CFMEU industrial officer Karen Scoble said the WAIRC’s appeal decision had actually given unions a road map on how the unions could better make use of enterprise orders.
Hanssen only won its appeal because the full bench felt that commissioner Jack Gregor, who handled the original enterprise order hearing, had erred because he considered some industrial agreements that he did not give either the union or Mr Hanssen a chance to contend.
Legal experts also say that the Hanssen case was problematic because Mr Hanssen insisted on representing himself in the original hearing.
Case documents show that Mr Gregor offered to stop the hearing several times so that Mr Hanssen could receive legal advice.
Enterprise orders are a creation of the Gallop Government’s industrial relations laws.
The orders allow a business or a union to seek to force an agreement on the other party if it is not bargaining in good faith.
