Commission backs employer's no-pay call after union pitches cleaning and painting as useful work
A wire manufacturer's decision to stand down workers during rolling one-hour stoppages has survived a union challenge at the Fair Work Commission.
In a decision handed down on 14 May 2026, Commissioner Perica resolved the dispute in The Australian Workers' Union v InfraBuild Wire Pty Ltd [2026] FWC 1754, a case that lands squarely on the desks of HR leaders dealing with rolling protected action and stand down decisions.
The backstory is straightforward. With enterprise bargaining underway at the Geelong wire mill, the AWU notified four consecutive one-hour stoppages at the end of every night, day and afternoon shift across 27 and 28 February 2025. The pattern meant workers would work four hours, then stop for the rest of the shift. The next shift would do the same. And so on, for six shifts running.
InfraBuild responded by standing down affected wiredrawing and galvanising employees without pay, citing section 524 of the Fair Work Act and clause 28 of the enterprise agreement. The company argued the stoppages made useful employment impossible because the galvanising line could not be started, run and shut down productively within a four-hour window without producing significant scrap and wire of substandard quality.
The AWU pushed back hard. Workers, it said, could have been usefully employed cleaning, painting, training, working through outstanding safety corrective actions,...
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