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.
The FWC has late today declined to expedite Transgrid's application for an intractable bargaining application against the ETU, after the power company last week won a two-month suspension of the union's protected action, but lost its bid to block an order for production of documents.
The CFMEU construction division's Queensland branch has suffered multiple setbacks in its bargaining stoush with the head contractor of the state's $7 billion Cross River Rail project, with workers voting up a new deal put directly by the company and the FWC separately issuing two orders stopping unprotected industrial action.
The FWC says it suspended certain ETU work bans on NSW's power transmission network because Transgrid "clearly established" the action threatened lives, safety, health or welfare, but the union is celebrating the rejection of the private operator's latest "substandard" offer.
A new protected ballot agent seed-funded by the ACTU has won FWC approval, after establishing that it has taken steps to separate itself from the union peak body, which is seeking to give unions a fair and low-cost alternative to existing providers.
A FWC full bench has clarified what constitutes "significant" damage to the national economy and when an employer can be considered an "important part" of it, in reasons for overturning the suspension of protected action by sugar industry workers.
In a case that weighs up employer rights when conducting investigations under commonly-used agreement provisions, a FWC full bench has rejected a worker's request for an investigation report that details his alleged misconduct, but has suggested the employer re-open its probe because it denied him natural justice.
Stevedore Qube has failed to persuade the FWC that the MUA is deliberately complicating negotiations for a new Melbourne port deal in the belief that it will get a better result if the matter is arbitrated by the Commission under new Closing Loopholes laws.
Transgrid, the privately-owned operator of the NSW high-voltage electricity network, has won a three-week suspension of protected bans on work defined as a declared incident or emergency.
The Federal Court has again intervened to turn down the heat in a continuing bargaining stoush between the CFMEU and the head contractor for Queensland's $7 billion Cross River Rail project, giving the union until Thursday to challenge orders imposing 15-metre no-go zones around sites and prohibiting the filming of workers crossing picket lines.
