New South Wales Consolidated Acts

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT 1996 - SECT 139

139 Contravention of dispute order

(1) The Commission, on application, must deal expeditiously with an alleged contravention of a dispute order. The application may be made by the person who applied for the order or any other person who was authorised to apply for the order.

(2) Before dealing with an alleged contravention of the order, the Commission is required to summon the person alleged to have contravened the order to show cause why the Commission should not take action for the contravention.

(3) The Commission may, after hearing any person who answered the summons to show cause and considering any other relevant matter, do any one or more of the following:

(a) dismiss the matter if it finds that the dispute order was not contravened or if it finds that the circumstances were such that the Commission should take no action on the contravention,

(b) cancel the approval of an enterprise agreement,

(c) suspend or modify for any period all or any of the entitlements under an industrial instrument,

(d) cancel the registration of an industrial organisation or take any other action authorised by Division 2 of Part 3 of Chapter 5,

(e) impose a penalty on an industrial organisation or an employer as provided by subsection (4),

(f) make any other determination that the Commission considers would help in resolving the industrial dispute.

(4) The maximum penalty that may be imposed on an industrial organisation or employer is:

(a) except as provided by paragraph (b)-a penalty not exceeding in total $10,000 for the first day the contravention occurs and an additional $5,000 for each subsequent day on which the contravention continues, or

(b) if a penalty has previously been imposed on the industrial organisation or employer for a contravention of an earlier dispute order-a penalty not exceeding in total $20,000 for the first day the contravention occurs and an additional $10,000 for each subsequent day on which the contravention continues.

(5) Any such penalty may be recovered in the same way as a penalty imposed by the Commission for an offence against this Act.

Note: The jurisdiction of the Commission under this section is exercisable only by the Commission in Court Session.