Government plans to streamline industrial disputes with rulings on the day of hearings creates a "substantial risk of error," according to the bench of the Employment Court.
In a written submission on the Employment Relations Amendment Bill, Chief Judge Graeme Colgan told politicians attempts to speed up the determination process
in the Employment Relations Authority risks undermining the body with substandard rulings, and will likely lead to an increasing number of appeals.
The Chief Judge, on behalf of all judges on the Employment Court, wrote to Parliament's transport and industrial relations select committee overseeing the bill, which would demand either an oral ruling immediately after an ERA hearing with a written ruling within three months, or an indication of a preliminary finding.
"It is no exaggeration to say that some cases are essentially no different to ones determined by the Employment Court or to similar proceedings in the High Court, but which courts would, almost inevitably, reserve at the end of a hearing for delivery of a reasoned judgment in writing," Judge Colgan said.
"If an investigation meeting raises a complex or difficult question of law on which the authority member is not addressed sufficiently or at all, clause 61 (of the bill) would prevent the authority member from obtaining the benefit of legal research, creating a substantial risk of error in the determination," he said.
