The big stick handed to the ABCC in the form of personal payment orders against contravening union officials has been whittled further with two Federal Court decisions reinforcing that past records and a clear appreciation of consequences must first be taken into account.
Employers are warning of "massive liability" and instability for all who engage casuals and unions say it could be harder to use labour hire to "drive down costs", after a full Federal Court upheld a finding that a labour hire casual was in fact an employee entitled to annual leave payments.
The ACCC has laid criminal charges against the CFMMEU and its ACT construction and general division branch secretary, Jason O'Mara, over alleged cartel conduct.
A Federal Court finding that CFMMEU construction and general division Queensland branch secretary Michael Ravbar engaged in coercion and adverse action may be raised in future proceedings about his fitness to hold an entry permit.
The Victorian government plans to intervene for a second time in a lengthy bargaining dispute over a new enterprise agreement covering Esso's offshore oil and gas workers in Bass Strait.
A Federal Court judge has evoked the memory of the BLF's deregistration in the course of handing out maximum fines to the CFMMEU for "deplorable" breaches by a past State branch president, suggesting that any organisation that fails to rein in aberrant behaviour "cannot expect to remain registered in its existing form".
In a significant blow to ABCC attempts to rein in the behaviour of union officials by holding them personally liable for breach fines, the Federal Court has today ruled that an offender's past record must be taken into account before imposing such conditions.
NSW unions have launched a High Court challenge to new state electoral funding laws that they allege were crafted to criminalise the trade union movement's core operating method and silence working people's dissenting political voices.
Five migrant fruit pickers at the centre of a $10 million Federal Court claim against a labour hire company and its owners are seeking to be recognised as casuals, alleging their contracts for piecework were invalid and based average take home pay on an unrealistic workload.
