Terminating or suspending industrial action

Fair Work Australia may suspend or terminate industrial action even if it is protected in certain circumstances.

Fair Work Australia may suspend or terminate protected industrial action in the below instance:

• it is causing, or threatening to cause, significant economic harm to the employer or employees who will be covered by the proposed enterprise agreement
• the significant economic harm is imminent and
• the protected industrial action in question has been engaged in for a protracted period of time and the dispute will not be resolved in the reasonably foreseeable future.

Fair Work Australia must suspend or terminate protected industrial action that is being engaged in, or is threatened, impending or probable if it, either:

• threatens to endanger the life, personal safety, health or welfare of the population or a part of it, or
• threatens to cause significant damage to the economy or an important part of it.

Fair Work Australia must also suspend (but not terminate) protected industrial action, in other circumstances. These include:

• to allow a cooling off period, if this would be beneficial to resolving the issues in dispute
• if the protected industrial action is adversely affecting the employer or employees that will be covered by the proposed enterprise agreement, and it is also threatening to cause significant harm to a third party, such as disrupting the supply of goods or services to an enterprise, or reducing the third party’s capacity to fulfil a contractual obligation.

Orders to stop or prevent unprotected industrial action

Industrial action is only protected if it is in relation to bargaining for an enterprise agreement.

An application to stop or prevent industrial action must be granted by Fair Work Australia if the industrial action is unprotected, or involves employers and employees not covered by the national system, where the industrial action will, or would likely, cause substantial loss or damage to the business of a constitutional corporation.

 Fair Work Australia can make this order on its own initiative, or on application by either:

• a person who is indirectly or directly affected, or likely to be affected by the industrial action
• an organisation of which such a person is a member.

These types of applications should be heard and determined by Fair Work Australia within two days (or the next working day thereafter) of the application being made.

A Fair Work Australia order to stop or prevent industrial action can be enforced in the courts by a person affected by the contravention of the order or by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations can also, by written declaration, terminate protected industrial action if the industrial action threatens to either:

• endanger the life, personal safety, health or welfare of the population or part of it,
• cause significant damage to the Australian economy or an important part of it.