Reporting Guidelines
General Press Release No. 24 (July 1978)

Ambit Claims

The Western Australian Director of the Australian Trade Union Training Authority has asked the Australian Press Council to define for the general information of the press its attitude to the reporting, often in derisory terms, of the making of ambit claims in the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission.

The function of a union claim for wages and conditions is not generally understood. An award in the federal sphere cannot be obtained unless there exists an industrial dispute extending beyond the limits of any one State. It is established that a "paper" dispute will suffice, that is to say a dispute created by the serving of a log of claims by a union and its non-acceptance by the employers upon whom it is served. It is also established that an award cannot be made, nor can it be varied, save in final or temporary settlement, and therefore, within the ambit, of the dispute which has been proved as the foundation of jurisdiction. Consequently, the practice has grown up for a union which looks ahead, beyond the award it hopes for initially to the advantage of being able to seek future variations without going through the formalities of creating a new dispute, to make the claims in its initial log so wide as to give scope for all foreseeable, or perhaps unforeseeable, applications for variation; and the result is that logs of claims are frequently expressed as seeking much higher wages and much more favourable conditions of work than the union has any intention of seeking immediately. A log of this kind is known as an ambit log because it sets the ambit within which future variations may be sought. Sometimes, though not always, the product is a log of what appear at the time quite extravagant claims, and in extreme cases their extravagance may fairly be regarded as ludicrous.

The difficulty a union is in is that if it sets its sights too low it may be faced with the necessity on a future occasion, when circumstances may be very different, of having to go through the costly procedure of creating a new dispute. For example, the Press Council has been informed that for charter pilots, service of a new log would involve a distribution of claims to 2700 employers at a cost exceeding $3000.

All that the Press Council can do in general terms is to urge the Press to respect the real purpose of ambit claims, and not to hold a union up to ridicule simply because its ambit claims may appear excessive in existing circumstances.

On the other hand, however, if a union chooses to serve a log which looks absurd, even to a mind which appreciated its real purpose, it must in fairness accept the risk of being ridiculed.
 

Also on ambit claims: GPR 127.

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