ORDER PURSUANT TO S.66

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMISSION

CITATION : 2023 WAIRC 00210

DELIVERED : Tuesday, 18 April 2023

FILE NO. : PRES 1 OF 2023

Applicant

AND

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance Western Australia (Union of Employees)

Respondent

Catchwords : Industrial law (WA) - Application under s 66 - Inconsistency between State and federal union rules - Section 71(5) certificate no longer satisfied - Interim Union Council established  -  Proposed rule changes before the Registrar - Extension of order sought - Chief Commissioner functus officio - Order issued

Legislation : Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 (Cth)

Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA) s 66, s 71 

Result : Order issued

Representation:

Counsel:

Applicant : Ms T Venning and with her Mr M Chesher

Respondent : No appearance

Reasons for Decision

1         This application under s 66 of the Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA) was listed for directions on Friday, 14 April 2023.  I am satisfied that the applicant, Ms Venning, as a member of the respondent, has standing under s 66(1)(a) of the Act to commence these proceedings.  There is no objection from the respondent.

2         In an earlier decision and orders dated 1 and 2 March 2022 respectively, I set out the background to the present matter : Kate Ferguson v Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance of Western Australia (Union of Employees): [2022] WAIRC 00087; [2022] 102 WAIG 194; [2022] WAIRC 00092; [2022] 102 WAIG 195.  The order in that matter established an Interim Union Council of the respondent.  The Interim Union Council was established because the rules of the respondent and its counterpart federal body, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, an organisation registered under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 (Cth), had fallen out of alignment.  The order operated until 28 February 2023. I need not repeat that background, and I adopt and apply what I said on that occasion, for the purposes of these reasons.

3         In short, the present application has been made because the proposed alterations to the respondent’s rules, foreshadowed in my earlier decision, are presently the subject of an application to the Registrar and are yet to be finalised.  Once that occurs, the respondent will be required to bring an application under s 71 of the Act for a fresh s 71 certificate.  The applicant also contended that the respondent is a party to a number of State registered industrial agreements that are in the process of being renegotiated.  They will require execution by the respondent, so that applications can be made to the Commission to register the agreements under the Act as industrial agreements.  In order to do so, the respondent requires the continuation of the Interim Union Council, to exercise all of the powers, duties and functions of the Council of the respondent and of the relevant office holders, who are members of the Council.

4         In these circumstances, the applicant seeks either an extension of the date of my order dated 2 March 2022 or alternatively, a new order in the same terms, but with an operative date of 31 August 2023.

5         Having considered the application, I informed the parties that I would issue a new order under s 66 of the Act.  A variation of my order of 2 March 2022 in application PRES 6 of 2021 is not possible, as the operative date of 28 February 2023 has passed.  I am functus officio, in that I can no longer perform any functions or powers in relation to that order.

6         Accordingly, a minute of proposed order now issues giving effect to these brief reasons for decision.