| 13.1 | An appeal against a decision or part of a decision of an exemption committee must be lodged with the convenor of the Board no later than fourteen days after the party appealing the decision has received a copy of the decision in writing. |
| 13.2 | The notice of an appeal must— |
| 13.2.1 | set out the name and contact details of the party lodging the appeal; |
| 13.2.2 | provide a summary of the grounds for the appeal; |
| 13.2.3 | identify the collective agreement to which the exemption application relates; |
| 13.2.4 | identify the exemption committee that heard the initial application and provide the date of the relevant exemption committee’s meeting. |
| 13.3 | The following documents must be attached to a notice of appeal— |
| 13.3.1 | a copy of the decision of the exemption committee and the reasons for that decision; |
| 13.3.2 | a copy of the original exemption application; |
| 13.3.3 | copies of any notices, letters, affidavits or other documents handed to the exemption committee by any interested party; |
| 13.3.4 | minutes of the relevant exemption committee meeting or, if required a transcript of the relevant exemption committee meeting, if that meeting was tape-recorded, and |
| 13.4 | If any of the documents referred to in clause 13.3 are not in the possession of the party lodging the appeal, the notice of appeal must— |
| 13.4.1 | specify which documents should be attached but are not attached; |
| 13.4.2 | set out why the documents are not in the possession of the party lodging the appeal. |
| 13.5 | The appellant may attach to its notice of appeal written submissions on any issue raised by the appeal. |
| 14. | Duty of convenor on receipt of appeal |
| 14.1 | On receipt of a notice of appeal the convenor must— |
| 14.1.1 | confirm that the appeal is an appeal to be determined by the Board; |
| 14.1.2 | ensure that service on interested parties if required has been effected; |
| 14.1.3 | ensure that all relevant documentation is attached; |
| 14.2 | If the convenor is of the view that the appeal is not one to be determined by the Board, the convenor must return the appeal to the relevant Regional Council together with an explanation as to how the matter should be dealt with. |
| 15. | Incomplete applications |
If an appeal application is incomplete in any respect, the convenor must notify the party that lodged the appeal and give that party a further seven days from date of notification to file the additional information.
| 16. | Answering submissions by other interested parties |
Other interested parties may file written submissions on the appeal with the convenor, within seven days of receiving a copy of the notice of appeal.
| 17.1 | An interested party may apply to the Board to lead new evidence on appeal. |
| 17.2 | New evidence may relate to facts or events that took place before or after the date of the initial exemption application. |
| 17.3 | An application to lead new evidence must— |
| 17.3.2 | show that the evidence sought to be lead is material and relevant to the issue on appeal; |
| 17.4.1 | refuse the application for the leading of new evidence; |
| 17.4.2 | grant the application for the leading of new evidence in whole or part and— |
| (a) | consider the evidence itself; |
| (b) | remit the appeal to the relevant exemption committee with an instruction for the committee to consider the new evidence and reconsider its decision in the light of that evidence. |
| 17.5 | If the Board decides to consider the evidence itself, and the evidence is not documentary evidence, it must direct whether the evidence should be presented orally or on affidavit. |
| 17.6 | If oral evidence is lead, all interested parties must be given an opportunity to— |
| 17.6.1 | cross-examine any person giving evidence; |
| 17.6.2 | lead their own witnesses to refute any evidence lead. |
| 17.7 | If the Board directs that evidence must be on affidavit— |
| 17.7.1 | the relevant affidavits must be filed with the convenor within seven days of the Board’s decision to allow the evidence to be lead; |
| 17.7.2 | other interested parties may file answering affidavits within seven days of receiving an affidavit containing new evidence; |
| 17.7.3 | the party that filed the affidavit containing new evidence may, within seven days of receiving any answering affidavit, file— |
| (a) | a replying affidavit; |
| (b) | supplementary submissions; |
| 17.7.4 | other interested parties may file supplementary submissions— |
| (a) | within seven days of receiving any supplementary submissions or replying affidavits; |
| (b) | if no supplementary submissions or replying affidavits are filed, within seven days of the filing of any answering affidavit; or |
| (c) | if no answering affidavits are filed, within seven days of receiving the affidavit containing new evidence. |
| 18.1 | The Board may, on good cause shown, condone the late filing of any documents. |
| 18.2 | An application for condonation must be on affidavit. |
| 19.1 | Subject to sub-clause 18.2, the Board decides appeals based on the papers filed. |
| 19.2 | Any interested party may apply to the Board for an opportunity to present oral submissions. |
| 19.3 | In deciding whether to allow oral submissions, the Board must take into account— |
| 19.3.1 | the complexity of the matter; |
| 19.3.2 | the comparative abilities of the parties to present their submissions in writing; |
| 19.3.3 | the interests of justice. |
| 19.4 | If an application for oral submissions is granted, the convenor must notify all interested parties and all interested parties must be given an equal opportunity to make oral submissions. |
| 19.5 | The Board may limit the time allocated to each party for oral submissions. |
| 20. | Board meetings open to public |
| 20.1 | Board meetings that hear oral evidence or oral submissions may be open to the public at the discretion of the Board. |
| 20.2 | The Board may meet behind closed doors if the Board is meeting to deliberate on any matter. |
| 21. | Finding and reasons for decision |
| 21.1 | The Board shall decide an appeal as soon as possible and not later than 30 days after the appeal is lodged. The Board must provide the convenor with a written decision on the appeal and with brief reasons for that decision. |
| 21.2 | The convenor must circulate the Board’s decision and the reasons to all interested parties. |
