In a significant judgment on the statutory nature of a "proposed enterprise agreement", a Federal Court has rejected arguments that rail unions lost protection of their industrial action once the bargaining focus changed from a single to a multi-employer deal.
The FWC has refused an employer's application to stop allegedly unprotected action, finding that two off-duty employees' distribution of campaign materials did not amount to industrial action because it did not alter their performance of work, or disrupt other workers.
Rail unions are urgently seeking renewed authorisation for festive season protected action at Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, after the Federal Court last night acceded to the employers' bid to temporarily declare unlawful bans to take effect this morning.
In a breakthrough for NSW fisheries officers seeking to carry capsicum spray while patrolling for poachers, the State IRC has refused to terminate work bans after the Department of Primary Industries failed to convince it they seriously risk depleting fish stocks.
The head contractor on Queensland's largest infrastructure project has failed to win FWC orders to compel hundreds of subcontractors to cross CFMEU picket lines, with the tribunal finding their no-shows did not amount to unprotected action.
The FWC has taken the unusual step of allowing an employer's HR manager on behalf of workers to sign off on an agreement not backed by the CFMEU's construction division, after accepting evidence that employees were "reluctant" to put their names to the deal.
NSW nurses and midwives have defied a tribunal's anti-strike orders, telling its members the State Government has left them with "no choice but to fight".
A FWC full bench led by president Adam Hatcher has overturned a two-month suspension of ETU strikes against Transgrid, taking the opportunity to lay out the correct approach to assessing safety commitments when considering whether protected industrial action should be stopped or suspended.
The AFP has failed to convince the FWC that the Australian Federal Police Association's "cursory" approach to providing a list of officers who wanted to continue wearing their "accoutrements and radios" while on strike at airports meant the industrial action was unprotected and should therefore be stopped.
The ETU's refusal to acknowledge that power network operator Transgrid alone dictates when emergency work is required provided the FWC sufficient reason to extend orders preventing certain protected industrial action for a further two months, according to a senior member.
