Melbourne Law School - Theses

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    In the public interest? The application of section 41(1)(d) of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act (Cth) in the SEQEB dispute
    McDonald, Michael Phillip (1959-) ( 1991)
    In late 1984, the Queensland branch of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) embarked on a major campaign of industrial action in opposition to attempts by the South East Queensland Electricity Board (SEQEB) to introduce contract labour. The campaign was to have far-reaching consequences for the individual members of the ETU and for the regulation of industrial relations in the Queensland electricity industry. On February 11, 1985 approximately 900 members of the ETU who were on strike were summarily dismissed by SEQEB. Soon after, the Queensland Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Commission was stripped of its jurisdiction to deal with industrial disputes in the electricity industry. The Queensland government established a specialist tribunal to deal with industrial affairs in the electricity industry, and enacted legislation which conferred sweeping powers on employers in the electricity industry to deal with employees engaging in industrial action. The ETU responded to these events by seeking an award of the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, which would override the system of regulation set in place by the Queensland government. The Queensland government and electricity authorities vigorously opposed the granting of the award sough by the ETU. This thesis examines the successful application pursued by the Queensland electricity authorities before the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, whereby the Commission refrained from proceeding to make the award sought by the ETU on the ground that to do so would not be in the public interest. By analysing the flaws in the Commission's exercise of the public interest discretion, the thesis attempts to enunciate principles governing the proper exercise of the Commission's power to refrain from granting an award on public interest grounds.
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    Directors' duties, creditors' rights and shareholder intervention
    Worthington, Sarah ( 1991)
    The time is ripe for a critical analysis of the scope of directors' duties, the role of shareholder intervention and the ability of company creditors to obtain remedies. Company directors are now the object of intense public scrutiny. Popular sentiment, law reform bodies and the judiciary all appear to favour expanding the duties owed by directors and increasing the ability of minority shareholders and company creditors to complain of breaches. Before any reforms are introduced, the existing law needs to be reassessed: it may already be capable of meeting the proposed demands. This thesis puts forward the view that no change to the existing law is necessary. It proposes a new analysis of the existing law to provide a logical legal framework for determining standing to sue, appropriate remedies and the effectiveness of shareholder intervention. This analysis suggests that shareholders and company creditors have greater rights than was previously thought: for this reason the existing law is adequate to meet the increased demands proposed. The absence of an adequate analytical framework in this area of the law is most evident in the debates concerning both directors' duties to creditors and the role of directors in company takeovers. The former are analyzed in detail in this thesis, but the same analysis is equally applicable to the latter. The analytical framework proposed to remedy this deficiency requires that a simple but fundamental distinction be drawn between directors' duties to act for proper purposes and directors' duties of loyalty to the company. The consequences of such a simple distinction are far-reaching: different remedies, different possibilities for shareholder intervention and different classes of possible complainants are appropriate for breaches of the different duties. It is these consequences which give the proposed analytical framework its value.