The disciplinary complaint brought by the applicants under s 22 of the BWC Act was dismissed as an abuse of process under s 48(2) of the SACAT Act. The Tribunal found the proceedings were not brought for an improper purpose (s 48(1)(b)), as the applicants had a clear entitlement under s 22 to lodge a disciplinary complaint, but held the proceedings constituted an abuse of process (s 48(1)(c)) because the original application used a legitimate disciplinary process to seek personal contractual compensation — an illegitimate end — and the applicants' stated intention to pursue parallel contractual proceedings elsewhere created significant disadvantage to the respondents through potential inconsistent findings, duplicated evidence, and leveraging of the disciplinary threat. Private complainants under s 22 BWC Act risk abuse of process findings where disciplinary complaints are intertwined with personal compensation claims and parallel civil proceedings on the same facts are foreshadowed.
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