An erroneous construction of a contract by the Industrial Court of NSW in the exercise of its declaratory jurisdiction under s 154 of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 is an error within jurisdiction, not a jurisdictional error, where the court understood its task and applied accepted principles of construction. In voluntary redundancy contracts, a nominated termination date may be construed as a pre-condition to entitlement to the redundancy payment rather than merely an essential term, with the consequence that an employee absolved from counter-performance by the employer's anticipatory breach is entitled to damages rather than the contractual payment calculated by reference to a later termination date.
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