R v Findlay; Ex parte Commonwealth Steamship Owners' Association [1953] HCA 81

ppl Vic Foll

aon 7 Swe Ex eral Reeh 90 C.L.R.] OF AUSTRALIA. 621

[HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

THE QUEEN

AGAINST

FINDLAY AND ANOTHER ;

Ex parte THE COMMONWEALTH STEAMSHIP OWNERS' ASSOCIATION AND OTHERS.

Industrial Arbitration (Cth.)—Coneiliation and arbitration—Casual wharf clerks—

"Attendance" money—Award—Variation—A pplication to conciliation com- 1953. missioner—Proposals for payment—Power of commissioner—* Industrial ay matter '—Prohibition—The Constitution (63 & 64 Vict. c. 12), s. Sypxey,

—Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1952 (No. 13 of 1904—No. 3 : Aug. 17,18; s. 4. Dec. 1.

An association of employers applied for a writ of prohibition to restrain

a proceeding before a conciliation commissioner in which proceeding an

' : ' Kitto and order was sought varying an award applicable (inter alia) to the employment 'Taylor JJ.

of casual wharf clerks. The variation claimed related to the payment of attendance money to casual wharf clerks who had attended the place of engagement and offered themselves for employment unsuccessfully. 'The application sought this variation in one of three different ways; the first

required that the employer by whom the casual wharf clerk is next employed should be liable for the attendance money; the second that the employer by whom he was last employed should be so liable, and the third that all the usual employers in the industry in the given pork should jointly and severally be liable for the attendance money.

Held, (1) That in respect of the first and second proposed variations the connection between the employment and the purpose of the payment was not remote or tenuous, and that the mere form of the provisions did not show that the subject matter could not be an " industrial matter " as defined in s. 4 of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1952.