Trades Unions Act 1889

Trades Unions Act 1889

This Act may be cited as the Trades Unions Act 1889.

In this Act trade union means any combination, whether temporary or permanent, for regulating the relations between workmen and employers, or between workmen and workmen, or between employers and employers, or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business, whether such combination would or would not if this Act had not passed have been deemed to have been an unlawful combination by reason of some one or more of its purposes being in restraint of trade: Provided that this Act shall not affect any agreement – between partners as to their own business; between an employer and those employed by him as to such employment; in consideration of the sale of the goodwill of a business, or of instruction in any profession, trade, or handicraft.

In this Act, Commissioner means the Commissioner for Corporate Affairs holding office under section 4 of the Commissioner for Corporate Affairs Act 1980, and includes any person holding that office in an acting capacity.

The purposes of any trade union shall not by reason merely that they are in restraint of trade be unlawful so as to –

render void or voidable any agreement or trust; or render any member of such trade union liable to criminal prosecution for conspiracy.

Nothing in this Act shall enable any court to entertain any legal proceeding instituted with the object of directly enforcing or recovering damages for the breach of any agreement – between members of a trade union as such concerning the conditions on which any members of such trade union shall or shall not sell their goods, transact business, employ, or be employed; for the payment by any person of any subscription or penalty to a trade union; for the application of the funds of a trade union – to provide benefits to members; to furnish contributions to any employer or workman, not a member of such trade union, in consideration of such employer or workman acting in conformity with the rules or resolutions of such trade union; or to discharge any fine imposed upon any person by sentence of a court; or made between one trade union and another; or any bond to secure the performance of any of the above-mentioned agreements.

Nothing in this section shall render any of the above-mentioned agreements unlawful.

Any seven or more members of a trade union may, by subscribing their names to the rules of the union and otherwise complying with the provisions of this Act with respect to registry, register such trade union under this Act: Provided that if any one of the purposes of such trade union be unlawful such registration shall be void.

Any trade union registered under this Act may, or any two or more trade unions may jointly, for the purposes of the union or unions, purchase or take upon lease, in the names of the trustees of such union or unions, any land or buildings for the purpose of carrying on its or their affairs, and may sell, exchange, mortgage, or let the same.

No purchaser, assignee, mortgagee, or tenant shall be bound to inquire whether the trustees have authority for any sale, exchange, mortgage, or letting, and the receipt of the trustees shall be a discharge for the money arising therefrom.

For the purpose of this section every branch of a trade union shall be considered a distinct union, but it shall not be lawful for any branch of a trade union to expend any of its funds in the purchase of lands or erection of any buildings without first obtaining the consent of the parent society.

No portion of any funds so expended on the purchase of any lands or buildings or on the erection of any buildings shall consist of subscriptions by members of any trade union to the sick or benefit funds of such trade union.

All real and personal estate whatsoever belonging to any trade union registered under this Act shall be vested in the trustees of the trade union appointed as provided by this Act for the use and benefit of such trade union and the members thereof, and the real or personal estate of any branch of a trade union shall be vested in the trustees of such branch, or of the trustees of the trade union if the rules of the trade union so provide, and be under the control of such trustees, their respective executors or administrators, according to their respective claims and interests.

Upon the death, resignation, or removal of any such trustees the same shall vest in the succeeding trustees for the same estate and interest as the former trustees had therein, and subject to the same trusts, without any conveyance or assignment or transfer.

In case any such property be under the Land Titles Act 1980, the trustees in whom the same is vested under the provisions of this Act shall be deemed the proprietors thereof within the meaning of that Act as if the names of such trustees appeared or were recorded as proprietors of that property in the Register kept under that Act.

In all actions, indictments, or summary proceedings touching or concerning any such property, the same shall be stated to be the property of the persons holding the said office of trustee in their proper names as trustees of such trade union without any further description.

The trustees of any trade union registered under this Act, or any other officer of such trade union who may be authorized so to do by the rules thereof, are hereby empowered to bring or defend, or cause to be brought or defended, any action, prosecution, or complaint in any court touching or concerning the property, right, or claim to property of the trade union.

Such trustees may, in all cases concerning the real or personal property of such trade union, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded in any court in their proper names without other description than the title of their office.

No such action, prosecution, or complaint shall be discontinued or shall abate by the death or removal from office of such persons or any of them, but the same shall and may be proceeded in by their successors as if such death, resignation, or removal had not taken place, and such successors shall pay or receive the like costs as if the action, prosecution, or complaint had been commenced in their names for the benefit of, or to be reimbursed from, the funds of such trade union.

Any summons to be issued to any such trustee or other officer may be served by leaving the same at the registered office of the trade union.

A trustee of any trade union registered under this Act shall not be liable to make good any deficiency which may arise or happen in the funds of such trade union, but shall be liable only for the moneys which shall be actually received by him on account of such trade union.

Every treasurer or other officer of a trade union registered under this Act, at such times as by the rules of such trade union he should render such account as hereinafter mentioned, or upon being required so to do, shall render to the trustees of the trade union, or to the members of such trade union, at a meeting of the trade union, a just and true account of all moneys received and paid by him since he last rendered the like account and of the balance then remaining in his hands, and of all bonds and securities of such trade union.

The trustees shall cause such account to be audited by some fit and proper person by them to be appointed.

Such treasurer, if thereunto required, upon the said account being audited, shall forthwith hand over to the said trustees the balance which on such audit appears to be due from him, and shall also, if required, hand over to such trustees all securities and effects, books, papers, and property of the said trade union in his hands or custody; and if he fail to do so the trustees of the said trade union may sue such treasurer in any competent court for the balance appearing to have been due from him upon the account last rendered by him, and for all the moneys since received by him on account of the said trade union, and for the securities and effects, books, papers, and property in his hands or custody, leaving him to set off in such action the sums, if any, which he may have since paid on account of the said trade union.

In any such action the said trustees shall be entitled to recover their full costs to be taxed as between Australian legal practitioner and client.

If any officer, member, or other person being or representing himself to be a member of a trade union registered under this Act, or the nominee, executor, administrator, or assignee of a member thereof, or any person whatsoever, by false representation or imposition obtain possession of any moneys, securities, books, papers, or other effects of such trade union, or, having the same in his possession, wilfully withhold or fraudulently misapply the same, or wilfully apply any part of the same to purposes other than those expressed or directed in the rules of such trade union or any part thereof, any two justices, upon a complaint made by any person on behalf of such trade union or by the Commissioner, may make an order requiring such officer, member, or other person to deliver up all such moneys, securities, books, papers, or other effects to the trade union, or to repay the amount of money applied improperly, and to pay, if such justices think fit, a further sum of money not exceeding 5 penalty units, together with costs not exceeding $2.

In default of such delivery of effects or repayment of such amount of money, or payment of such penalty and costs as aforesaid, such justices may order the said person so convicted to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months.