Patrick’s enterprise agreement to stand after Fair Work Commission appeal sinks
The Maritime Union of Australia has lost its appeal against a single enterprise workplace agreement with Patrick Port Logistics’ Cargolink.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) approved the agreement in January, but the MUA appealed against what it considered an incorrect determination.
Commissioner Helen Cargill had ruled that the Better-Off-Overall-Test (BOOT) applied only with reference to the Road Transport Award, and not the Stevedoring Award.
The MUA argues that the stevedoring award, which has a lower base pay but a wider range of penalty rates, should have applied to the BOOT for Cargolink’s Brisbane workforce.
It says the definition of the stevedoring industry should capture any employer engaged in the transport or storage of cargo at a wharf, “even if that employer is not engaged in the loading or unloading of cargo into, or from, a ship”.
But the FWC did not see it that way. The three-person panel agreed with Cargill’s original ruling, saying the definition of stevedoring necessarily involved a ship.
“To suggest that the Stevedoring Award extends to employers who are merely involved in transportation and storage at or adjacent to a wharf would be misapplying the language of the definition and circumventing the intention of the Award Modernisation Full Bench,” they concluded.
“As Patrick Port Logistics (Cargolink) is not engaged in the loading or unloading of cargo into or from a ship, the Stevedoring Award does not apply to its operations.”