| Summary |
DISPUTE - Application for declarations - Parties to expired collective employment agreement (CEA) - Employees previously employed on individual employment agreements - Variation to hours of work - Application for declaration that applicant entitled to change employees' hours of work and require employees to work changed hours - Applicant wished to change employees' hours of work and require them to work on Sunday, evenings and with different start and finish times - Employees' opposed changes - Respondent claimed CEA savings provision protected more advantageous additional terms and conditions that arose out of individual employment agreements or contracts - CEA provided that any additional terms and conditions must be recorded in individual schedules - Schedules required agreement between applicant and particular employee - CEA provided employees engaged for forty hours per week to be worked on five days, Monday through Sunday, except where variation otherwise agreed in writing - Plain meaning of the words permitted applicant to require employees to work on Sunday, evenings and with different start and finish times - However, declaration not appropriate as several factors impacted on employment relationship - CEA savings clause protected individual terms and conditions - Two signed individual employment agreements provided penal rates for working weekends - Individual schedules not properly completed, therefore any individual terms that were more advantageous needed to be agreed on - Three individual employment agreements not signed by employees - Applicant failed to comply with variation process under CEA - Applicant could not rely on variation clause - Variation needed to be agreed on by employees - Existing arrangements as to hours of work not inconsistent with terms and conditions of CEA - CEA and one year enforcement period expired - Proceedings could only relate to individual employees by virtue of their terms and conditions to agreement - Claim for declarations dismissed - Various lengths of service - Subeditors |