The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Affco against a lower court's finding that the meat processor unlawfully locked out meat workers when collective bargaining was taking place.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal's view that the relationship between Affco and its seasonal workers "was sufficiently close to bring the latter within the scope of the word 'employees' in s.82(1)(b)" of the Employment Relations Act.
In reaching their decision, Justices Terence Arnold, Mark O'Regan, William Young, John McGrath and Susan Glazebrook first ruled that the workers weren't employees as defined by s.6 of the ERA because their employment was discontinuous, being terminated at the end of one season before they were re-engaged at the start of the next season.
However, in terms of s.82(1)(b) of the Act (the lockout provision), they ruled that "employee" had a broader meaning than provided in the s.6 definition because it included persons seeking employment that "were not, in contractual terms, strangers to the employer".
"Rather, they were people who had previously worked for Affco and to whom Affco owed contractual obligations, including as to re-hiring, even though their employment had terminated at the end of the previous season and they were seeking to be re-engaged for the new season," the judgment says. "That feature of termination plus re-engagement under the umbrella of a number of continuing obligations distinguishes this case."