The NSW secretary of the firefighters' union, Jim Casey, has survived a challenge by just 11 votes after only 31% of eligible members voted in an election that was declared yesterday.
The Abbott Government has appointed to the High Court the Federal Court judge Michelle Gordon, who last month was part of a full bench that struck down the Coalition's attempt to exclude foreign workers on offshore resources projects from Australian labour standards.
With Employment Minister Eric Abetz signalling he intends to cold-call, rather than advertise, to fill Fair Work Commission vacancies, the AMMA is today arguing it is people with employer backgrounds whose numbers he should be dialling.
Confirming this afternoon that he will run against ACTU secretary Dave Oliver at the peak body's May Congress, assistant secretary Tim Lyons said that unions needed to stop defining themselves by what they opposed and become the champion of the nation's working people.
Kathy Jackson's lawyer has succeeded in staving off the HSU's bid for a $700,000 summary judgment against her for now, with the Federal Court ordering him to provide more medical evidence of her condition.
The Fair Work Commission has held that a Victorian water authority made a "further claim" that contravened its enterprise agreement when it removed a policy providing for employees' personal use of its cars.
