In what the ETU is calling a landmark judgment about trainees' rights, a full Federal Court majority has upheld penalties levied against two companies who stopped organisers entering their premises to speak to apprentices on the basis they were not at "work".
In the wake of the review of the Queensland IR Act, the Crisafulli Government has introduced legislation that enables the IR minister to terminate industrial action if it serves the public interest, prohibits workers from taking industrial action during conciliation or arbitration, and creates a new "fit and proper person" test for union officials.
In decisions confirming a need to err on the side of disclosure when seeking right-of-entry permits, the FWC has clarified that spent convictions or dismissed offences must be revealed and those quashed on appeal are treated as if they never occurred.
A CFMEU construction division official once deemed remorseless for multiple breaches and who is currently defending two court cases has won a new entry permit, with administrator Michael Crosby telling the FWC that past leaders "continually" let the organiser down.
One of the CFMEU's most controversial officials has had his state entry permit revoked, after an IR tribunal full bench used new laws to revisit his lengthy criminal history and consider threats last year to "rip out the heart" of a sub-contractor's representative.
The FWC has cleared the way for the CFMEU to re-employ a "removed" official once fined for failing to wait for managers to escort him around a construction site before asking "unremarkable and proper" safety-related questions.
The FWC has refreshed its advice on how it assesses whether an applicant is a "fit and proper person" to hold an entry permit, providing examples of those granted and those refused after recently issuing one to a CFMEU organiser "removed" when the union went into administration.
The Federal Court has ordered related entities ECA Training Pty Ltd and NECA Training Pty Ltd to pay $30,000 in fines for blocking two ETU officials from entering its Sydney premises to talk to apprentices.
A court has fined an employer more than $42,000 for refusing to let AMIEU NSW branch assistant secretary Jason Schultz enter its lunchroom to speak with workers the day before they were to vote on a new agreement, while also threatening to call the police.
The ANMF has put new steps in place after an industrial officer failed to return his expired entry permit and "inadvertently" continued to rely on it, while the FWC has issued a new one on the condition he refreshes his training.
