When the FWC Won’t Stop a Strike: What the Inpex Case Means for Employers

A major LNG project. Four hundred workers on strike. A company so confident in its case it went to the Fair Work Commission seeking an emergency order to shut the strike down. And then the FWC said no.

The Inpex Ichthys LNG dispute is one of the most closely watched industrial action cases in Australia right now. And while your business probably isn’t running a 9.3-million-ton-per-year liquefied natural gas facility, the legal mechanics at play here affect every employer in Australia with a workforce that can vote to strike.

Here’s what happened, how the law works, and what it means for you.

What actually happened at Ichthys

Inpex operates the Ichthys LNG project near Darwin. Around 400 offshore and onshore workers, represented primarily by the Offshore Alliance (which includes the Australian Workers Union and the Maritime Union of Australia), had been bargaining for a new enterprise agreement for more than six months.

The sticking points were pay rates, allowances, career progression, and job security protections. In April 2026, 326 of 346 union members voted to take protected industrial action after negotiations stalled. Strikes started. They escalated. By early June, workers were taking blocks of up to eight hours per shift.

On 9 June 2026, Inpex filed an application under section 424 of the Fair Work Act 2009 seeking an urgent order from the FWC to suspend or terminate the protected industrial action. The company argued the strike was causing significant damage to the Australian economy.

After a hearing that ran over the weekend of 13 and 14 June, Deputy President Michael Easton rejected the application. The strike continues, with a cargo loading ban in place until 23 June. Bargaining must resume.

What is protected industrial action?

Industrial action is “protected” when workers and unions follow the legal steps set out in the Fair Work Act. This matters because protected industrial action cannot be stopped by an employer through the usual means, and workers cannot be sued or penalised for taking it.

To reach protected status, the steps include:

• The enterprise agreement being voted down, expired, or still being negotiated
• A protected action ballot order being granted by the FWC
• A secret ballot being conducted, with the majority of voting employees approving the action
• Three clear business days’ written notice given to the employer before action begins

At Ichthys, the union went through every one of these steps. The action was lawful. That is why Inpex could not simply order workers back to work. It had to go to the FWC and ask the tribunal to step in.

What is section 424 and when does it apply?

Section 424 of the Fair Work Act gives the FWC the power to suspend or terminate protected industrial action if it is satisfied the action is threatening to cause significant damage to the Australian economy, or a significant part of it, or is endangering life, personal safety, or welfare.

This is a high bar. The word “significant” is doing a lot of work here. Inconvenience, commercial disruption, and financial loss to the employer do not meet the threshold on their own.

In the Inpex case, the company argued:

• Lost LNG export revenue would damage the Australian economy
• The Northern Territory’s power supply could be put at risk if Ichthys production shut down

Deputy President Easton was not persuaded. Power and Water Corporation, the Northern Territory’s government-owned utility, had contingency measures in place. The FWC noted the facility had survived larger outages in the past without adverse consequences. The economic damage argument did not reach the section 424 threshold.

Crucially, the deputy president did not find the strike unlawful. He found it to be lawful protected industrial action that should continue, with both parties directed to keep bargaining.

What can employers do when protected industrial action begins?

This is the question most business owners actually need answered.

The honest answer is that your options are more limited than you might expect once a lawful strike is underway. But there are still things you can do.

Things you can do:

• Keep bargaining. The FWC almost always directs parties to continue negotiating. Making genuine progress can sometimes de-escalate action faster than legal manoeuvres.
• Apply under section 418 if the action becomes unprotected. If workers fail to follow the correct steps, or if the action is not covered by the ballot, you can seek an order to stop it.
• Refuse to pay employees for the period of industrial action. Employers are entitled to withhold pay for hours not worked during a strike.
• Make a revised offer. Inpex did exactly this during the hearing, signalling it would present a new offer to workers.
• Apply for a section 424 order if the threshold is genuinely met. This is available, but as the Inpex case shows, the bar is high.

Things you cannot do:

• Dismiss employees for taking protected industrial action
• Take adverse action against them for participating
• Lock out employees without following the correct FWC process
• Threaten, intimidate, or coerce employees to stop taking action

If you do any of the above, you expose your business to serious general protections claims under the Fair Work Act, which carry uncapped compensation.

The real lesson: enterprise bargaining is the place to get it right

The Inpex situation did not start on 9 June when the section 424 application was filed. It started six-plus months earlier when enterprise bargaining began and the parties could not find common ground.

Protected industrial action is almost always a symptom of a bargaining process that has broken down. By the time workers are voting to strike, trust is low, positions are entrenched, and your options as an employer have narrowed significantly.

The better play is to treat enterprise bargaining as a strategic process from day one, not a checkbox exercise. That means:

• Understanding your workforce’s genuine concerns before the ballot table, not during it
• Making realistic, early movement on issues that matter most to employees
• Using FWC conciliation and mediation processes before positions harden
• Getting advice on your bargaining obligations and what constitutes good faith bargaining

At HR Gurus, we work with businesses navigating enterprise bargaining from strategy through to execution. If you are heading into an EBA process, or if you are already in one and things are getting tense, the time to get support is now, not after strike action has been authorised.

Need help with enterprise bargaining or managing industrial action?

Talk to the HR Gurus team. We will tell you where you stand and what your options are, in plain English.

Book a call.