The FWC has found the AMWU genuinely made special projects officer Dave Kelly redundant, finding it retrenched him because it "was no longer a good spend of union funds to pay" him, rather than any "union election-related skullduggery" or "capriciousness".
A full Federal Court has today rejected a bid by the CFMMEU's manufacturing division to overturn the FWC's decision to deny it a ballot of members to win approval to disamalgamate from the broader union.
A court has roasted a construction contractor for the "deficient evidence" it relied on for its "complete denial" that it breached entry laws when it blocked CFMMEU officials from inspecting a suspected safety flaw they identified after entering a site to examine another possible contravention.
After years of battles with the organisations regulator over inaccurate membership records, the AWU has increased its supporter base by 1.5% in the latest reporting period, while the warring CFMMEU has shed 9,000 or 6% of its members in the last two reporting years.
CFMMEU leader Michael Ravbar has been skewered with his second personal penalty in four months for "blatantly" breaching entry rights when delaying work at a major project to promote an industry super fund during unauthorised early morning barbecues.
The Federal Court will in October consider whether it has reasonable grounds to start an inquiry into a recent AMWU election, at the urging of an organiser who narrowly missed out on replacing the NSW branch's assistant secretary.
A FWC full bench has clarified that divisions seeking to demerge from unions under legislation introduced in 2020 cannot rely on allegations of past mismanagement, because consideration of such cases is limited to "forward looking" assessments of their capacity to represent members.
A CFMMEU organiser has been granted an entry permit despite a lengthy history of convictions for alcohol-related offences, the FWC in part reasoning that because none occurred in workplace settings he met the definition of a fit and proper person.
A CFMMEU organiser ordered to pay $10,000 out of his own pocket for entry breaches has avoided having his permit withdrawn after the FWC found that doing so would be "punitive and nothing more".
As the CFMMEU's mining and energy division eagerly awaits the result of its demerger ballot, expected to be declared on Thursday, the RTBU's Victorian branch has told a FWC bench its locomotive division will be unable to protect members' interests if allowed to disamalgamate as it does not own the money in its bank accounts.
