FWC general manager Murray Furlong's bid to install an administrator in CFMEU construction division branches has hit a minor speed hump at its first court outing, with the presiding judge standing aside because he prosecuted officeholders when he acted as a barrister for the ABCC and its predecessors.
After Woolworths again delayed backpaying short-changed distribution centre workers, the FWC has recommended the supermarket giant "do all that is necessary to ensure" it pays affected SDA members at the Brisbane distribution centre, by the end of this month.
The Minns Government in NSW is moving this week to put an administrator into the CFMEU construction and general division's State-registered branch for up to five years.
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has this afternoon called on the CFMEU's "rogue" construction division to cooperate with FWC general manager Murray Furlong's Federal Court bid to put four of its branches into administration, while making it clear that he will intervene to support the application and reiterating that he will legislate for the same result if the union resists.
Rex airlines group's administrators have retrenched almost 600 employees, making them priority creditors, but if they end up relying on the FEG scheme, they're in for a long wait.
The ACTU is recommending the FWC include more "practical detail" in its draft "right to disconnect" award term, to "spell out" what the Commission will consider when it determines whether or not a refusal is unreasonable and is also proposing a review in 12 months.
FWC GM Murray Furlong has applied to the Federal Court today to have four CFMEU construction and general division branches put into administration, while he has left the door open for two more to go the same way.
The proposed "right to disconnect" modern award clause is "mostly suitable", but should clarify that the entitlement is a "workplace right" within the meaning of the Fair Work Act's general protections provisions and specify the dispute resolution procedure to follow, an employment and contract law academic says.
The FWC has extended time for a worker's unfair dismissal claim by 24 days because his employer, which "flouted its legal employment obligations and ignored the FWO", withheld his payslips and employment contract, preventing him from identifying the entity that employed him.
A FWC full bench has won support from unions and employers for suggested variations to casual employment clauses in awards to avoid friction with Closing Loopholes changes that take effect next month, although the Ai Group has raised a "related issue" it contends needs to be resolved as part of the case.
