Australian Building and Construction Commissioner v. Pattinson & Anor
Case No.
M34/2021
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
16/10/2020 Federal Court of Australia (Allsop CJ, Besanko, White, Wigney & Bromwich JJ)
Catchwords
Industrial law – Civil penalties – Determination of appropriate penalty – Where s 349(1) of Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) provided unlawful for person to knowingly or recklessly make false or misleading representation about another person’s obligation to engage in industrial activity – Where second respondent union had “no ticket no start” policy and respondents carried out policy by representing to two workers they could not work unless joined union – Where respondents admitted liability for two contraventions of s 349(1) – Where second respondent well-resourced and, since 2000, had breached pecuniary penalty provisions on more than 150 occasions, including at least 15 occasions involving “no ticket no start” policy and 7 previous contraventions of s 349(1) – Where primary judge considered statutory maximum penalty required to sufficiently deter respondents in light of previous contraventions and imposed maximum – Where respondents appealed to Full Federal Court, which held maximum penalty must only be imposed for most serious and grave contravening conduct and imposed lower penalty – Whether statutory maximum penalty must only be imposed for most serious and grave contravening conduct – Whether statutory maximum penalty can be imposed if necessary to deter contravening conduct.
Documents*
20/05/2021 Hearing (SLA, Canberra)
03/06/2021 Notice of appeal
08/07/2021 Written submissions (Appellant)
08/07/2021 Chronology (Appellant)
05/08/2021 Written submissions (Respondents)
26/08/2021 Reply
07/12/2021 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
06/12/2021 Outline of oral argument (Respondents)
07/12/2021 Outline of oral argument (Appellant)
13/04/2022 Judgment (Judgment summary)