So what’s this mean exactly (mainly the second quote)? From the ABC article
That companies can’t
require their employees to work public holidays, only request.
That’s very simplistic though, because an employee can’t unreasonably refuse to work.
From the judgment:
45An employer never has complete certainty of operation regarding what it would like in the future to demand of its employees and whether it can do so lawfully. An employer is only ever able to demand of its employees what is lawful and reasonable regardless of what a roster or contract say. Indeed, even if a contract contained a term which, in some circumstances, might be lawful and reasonable, does not mean by the intersection of a plethora of statutory obligations, that nonetheless the direction is not lawful in theparticular circumstances. It may be, as OS suggested, administratively burdensome for a mine to have to make a request rather than be able to require employees to work on public holidays. However, the legislation intends to confront this very mischief: To ensure that employers do not so require employees to work on public holidays absent the request being reasonable or the employee being able to refuse to work in reasonable circumstances.