The Federal Court has largely declined to take into account the CFMMEU's "recidivism" in setting a penalty against it for an organiser's unintended racial slur when he complained to a supervisor of southeast Asian background about the "third world" state of a Perth building site.
The FWC will hear the CFMMEU's challenge to BHP's mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy later this month after deciding the matter is significant enough to invite IR Minister Michaelia Cash, the ACTU and peak employer bodies to intervene.
The FWC has chosen not to withdraw an entry permit from a CFMMEU organiser fined $4500 for belittling and bullying conduct but warned the "well from which he drank" by expressing contrition and offering assurances "will likely have run dry" if he returns.
The Federal Court has rejected the ABCC's "cynical" view of CFMMEU-commissioned entry rights training for an inexperienced organiser who pushed over a Fulton Hogan manager when pressing to access parts of a Monash Freeway project site in 2017.
The CFMMEU has failed in an interlocutory court bid to enter tunnelling sites at Brisbane's $5 billion Cross River Rail Project, in the midst of a demarcation dispute with the AWU.
For the second time in a year, the FWC has assessed the suitability of a CPSU organiser to hold an entry permit after finding it lacked the power to simply replace her stolen one.
The FWC has refused to renew the entry permit of a CFMMEU construction division organiser it previously directed to undertake "emotional management" training, finding his role in an unlawful 2018 strike showed promises to reform when elected WA branch president did not play out.
A Federal Court judge has set a limit on the construction watchdog's use of anti-picketing laws to bring unions to heel, observing that "while picketing involves obstruction, not every obstruction is a picket".
Apologies and claims that he conducted himself "out of character" have not spared a union official having his entry permit suspended over a confrontation in which he told a site foreman he did "give a f--k" what happened because he was near the end of his career.
The ABCC will ask a court to prohibit union officials from "crowdfunding" personal penalties in what represents a significant escalation of its on-going bid to combat contravening union conduct in the construction industry.
