See Fair Work Act s.410
Employee response action for a proposed enterprise agreement means industrial action that:
Note: If a union is a bargaining representative of an employee who will be covered by the proposed enterprise agreement, the reference to a bargaining representative of the employee includes a reference to an officer of the union.[1]
The industrial action taken by an employer can be either protected or unprotected industrial action.[2]
The Commission has found that s.411 of the Fair Work Act (employer response action) is not relevantly different to the form of wording used in s.410 (employee response action), such that the decision in Australian and International Pilots Association v Fair Work Australia[3] was equally applicable to a consideration of employee response action.[4]
In Australian and International Pilots Association v Fair Work Australia the Full Court of the Federal Court considered whether there needed to be a link between employer response action and industrial action taken by employees. The Court found that the terms of the Fair Work Act limit an employer to some form of causally connected response to employee industrial action.[5]
A causal connection is the relation of cause and effect.[6]
In this context the 'cause' is the employer response action and the 'effect' is the employee response action.
The industrial action must not, if it is being organised or engaged in by a bargaining representative, relate to a significant extent to a demarcation dispute or contravene a Commission order that relates to a significant extent to a demarcation dispute.
[1] Fair Work Act s.410(3).
[2] Explanatory Memorandum to Fair Work Bill 2008 at para. 1649.
[3] [2012] FCAFC 65 (10 May 2012).
[4] Chubb Fire and Security Pty Ltd v Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia [2012] FWA 9076 (Bissett C, 30 October 2012) at para. 15.
[5] Australian and International Pilots Association v Fair Work Australia [2012] FCAFC 65 (10 May 2012) at para. 116.
[6] Butterworths Australian Legal Dictionary, 1997, at p. 172.