See Fair Work Act s.611
Section 611 of the Fair Work Act sets out the general provision for when the Commission may order costs. The Commission may order a person to pay the other party’s costs if it is satisfied:
- that the person’s application or response to an application was made vexatiously or without reasonable cause, or
- it should have been reasonably apparent that the person’s application or response to an application had no reasonable prospect of success.
The power to award costs is discretionary. Awarding costs is a 2-stage process:
- First, a Commission Member will decide whether there is power to award costs, and
- if there is power, the Commission Member will consider whether an order for costs is appropriate in all the circumstances.[268]