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.
Newly-introduced NSW legislation would require employers to ensure that their use of artificial intelligence, algorithms and automation does not risk worker health and safety, including by creating excessive workloads and performance metrics or unreasonably monitoring workers.
CFMEU construction division WA branch secretary Mick Buchan has won his first entry permit in a decade, following a FWC finding he meets the "fit and proper person" test five years after landing a fine for organising an illegal strike.
A Canberra contractor that blocked CFMEU officials from investigating safety issues has been hit with higher penalties after conceding that a judge mistakenly bundled obstruction and misrepresentation breaches together when determining fines.
A FWC presidential member has set out the extent to which he considers untested allegations should influence issuing of entry permits, while considering evidence that included CFMEU construction division administrator Mark Irving KC accusing a site manager of "play acting" in a confrontation with a union official captured on video.
A head contractor unlawfully blocked ETU organisers' access to labour hire linesworkers on an interstate power transmission project, the Federal Court has found, and the various reasons it provided for refusing entry appear "disingenuous".
The FWC has renewed an MUA organiser's entry permit, finding his arrest at a rally opposing the war in Gaza relevant, but not enough to prevent him passing the fit and proper person test, and a "removed" CFMEU organiser has won a new permit after the old one's automatic cancellation.
In its first sitting week, Queensland's Crisafulli Government has "rammed through" legislation to reduce health and safety permit holders' entry rights, to address what it says is the CFMEU's "weaponisation of workplace health and safety", and introduced legislation to re-establish the State productivity commission.
The Federal Government should consider "a right of access" to workplaces rather than a right of entry", to overcome the presumption that workers attend a physical location to perform their jobs that "ignore[s] the reality" of post-COVID-19 remote and digital work environments, a union leader suggests in a paper she will present at the Australian Labour Law Association conference next week in Geelong.
