ABSTRACT
The employers lodged the challenge in the High Court in March. Handing down its decision in May, the Full Bench, in a unanimous decision, rejected the employers’ argument and opened up the way for award superannuation. Despite overturning a 34–year-old precedent, this decision was consistent with the changing view of the High Court in industrial relations cases. For other unions, campaigning was more protracted: in the oil industry; by journalists, glass workers and brewery workers; with threatened action by pilots; and in running battles with the conglomerate AdSteam, whose CEO John Spalvins took a personal role in opposing (ultimately unsuccessfully) claims at Dorf Taps, Natra, Noon Pies and elsewhere. The National Wage Case decision in March 1987 confirmed the commission’s role in superannuation, with the introduction of arbitration as a last resort to facilitate the process—albeit with phased contributions. The next key development was federal Treasurer Paul Keating’s announcement the week after the 1989 National Wage Case decision.
