Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union v Sydney International Container Terminals Pty Ltd [2025] FCAFC 19

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union v Sydney International Container Terminals Pty Ltd [2025] FCAFC 19 Appeal from: Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union v Sydney International Container Terminals Pty Ltd [2024] FCA 490

File number:

Judgment of: KATZMANN, RAPER AND KENNETT JJ

Date of judgment: 25 February 2025

Catchwords: INDUSTRIAL LAW – proper construction of enterprise agreement – where roster rules contained in enterprise agreement covering the parties and the employees required employees to work a certain number of hours annually (the threshold) plus reasonable overtime and payment for employees who had exceeded the threshold were entitled to be paid 30 hours at a certain rate plus the applicable overtime rate for each shift worked in the week – where employees who had exceeded the threshold took protected industrial action by refusing to work shifts on which they were rostered and employers refused to pay them for the shifts they refused to work – where primary judge held that payment was contingent on the employees working the shifts or being ready and willing to work them – whether primary judge erred in construction of agreement – whether primary judge erred in having regard to common law principle that payment of wages is conditional upon employee working or being ready and willing to work and concluding that principle not abrogated by agreement – where s 470(1) of Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) prohibits an employer from making a payment to an employee "in relation to the total duration of the industrial action on the day", whether in declining to pay employees for eight hours on each day they failed to attend work, respondents were not declining to make payment to the employees in relation to the duration of the industrial action taken on those days but were declining to pay them for days they had already worked STATUTORY INTERPRETATION – words and phrases – "in relation to the total duration of the industrial action on the day"