A full Federal Court majority has today rejected a judge's reasoning for ordering the MUA to pay a fine of just $38,000 for a week-long unlawful strike at Hutchison Ports' Sydney and Brisbane container terminals, but has rebuffed the FWO's contention that the stevedore should have been awarded $600,000 in damages it didn't seek.
The FWC has held that an agreement negotiated with two train drivers but set to cover an entire transferred workforce on the Roy Hill Pilbara mine network was not genuinely agreed, but it is asking whether this is a minor error that can be dealt with via an undertaking, "odd as that may be".
The FWC has used new legislation permitting it to overlook minor technical or procedural errors in agreements to endorse an enterprise deal with a bargaining notice that failed to comply with the Act's pre-approval requirements.
Labor has pledged to immediately increase the minimum wage for skilled overseas visa workers to $65,000 - a rise of almost 21% - if it wins the Federal election
A full Federal Court has upheld a finding that agreement-sanctioned union stopwork meetings can be freely used to delay and disrupt business as part of a campaign strategy, but has increased fines for the CFMMEU's coercion of head contractor Hutchison by almost 30%.
The FWC has made a bargaining order compelling the AWU to go against the wishes of its members and meet with an oil and gas refiner to negotiate a new agreement.
The CFMMEU's maritime division and the NRMA-owned operator of Sydney's Manly Fast Ferry service are expected to face off in the FWC this afternoon over planned stoppages that could start tomorrow, after talks this morning failed to resolve a bargaining impasse.
A Tasmanian wood mill operator that stood down its workforce after this year's bushfires has established that even though its agreement requires workers to be paid for time lost due to such natural events, it does not have to pay them if it is because of bushfire-damaged machinery.
Aviation unions are threatening to run an adverse action case against Qantas for making the payment of a $2000 cash bonus conditional on securing new post-wage-freeze enterprise agreements.
Unregistered retail union RAFFWU has today questioned Woolworths' decision to display a bargaining notice on physical noticeboards rather than its electronic or "point of sale" systems, during an FWC hearing into its bid to quash the approval of a new deal and clear the way for a $1 billion backpay claim.
