Alan Boulton

Justice Alan Boulton is a Senior Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission (FWC).

After graduating with law degrees (LL.B and LL.M Hons.) from Sydney University, he worked in practice as a solicitor and then as a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the Australian National University. In 1979 he was appointed the first Legal Officer with the Australian Council of Trade Unions. In February 1986 he was appointed as a Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. He was appointed as a Deputy President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) in February 1989 and as a Senior Deputy President in August 1992. He has also served as President of the Industrial Relations Commission of Victoria (1989-93) and as President of the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal (1990-2000).

During 1998-99 Justice Boulton worked with the International Labour Organization (ILO) as a Senior Specialist in International Labour Standards and Labour Law based in Manila, Philippines. This mainly involved assisting the Indonesia in the development and drafting of new and modern labour laws and with the ratification and implementation of labour conventions. Between 2001 and 2010, he was the Director of the ILO Jakarta Office. The ILO Jakarta Office covers Indonesia and Timor-Leste and is the ILO’s liaison office for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In this role, he was involved in the development and implementation of ILO programmes on child labour, industrial relations, labour administration, EEO, skills development and migrant workers and with the challenges involved in response to natural disasters and conflict – tsunami and earthquake programs in Indonesia and crisis response activities in Timor-Leste.

On Australia Day 2002, Justice Boulton was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). The citation for the honour was: “For distinguished service to industrial arbitration and labour relations at state and national level, to the Australian Defence Force, and to the development of labour policy and standards in the South East Asian region through the auspices of the International Labour Organization.”