FWBC director Nigel Hadgkiss has confirmed that 21 of the 53 matters it currently has before the courts concern right of entry breaches, and the issue is at the centre of a further 19 investigations.
The FWBC has challenged on "general integrity" grounds the granting of an unconditional entry permit to the CFMEU construction and general division Queensland branch secretary Michael Ravbar, telling an FWC full bench he is vicariously liable for conduct by his officials that has attracted close to $1m in penalties.
A senior FWC member has considered whether the tribunal should take into account a union's "poor history of compliance" and its "large number of contraventions" when it determines whether an official is a "fit and proper person" to hold an entry permit.
A self-confessed "smart-arse" organiser, who claimed to be crocodile hunter Steve Irwin after he entered a NSW building site for a safety inspection while under a Queensland permit, might be personally liable for any penalties.
An employer's insistence that a union organiser conduct meetings with members at a remote construction site in a non-airconditioned shipping container that reached temperatures of 50 degrees celsius did not excuse his abusive response, the Federal Court has ruled.
A new FWC ruling indicates that union officials seeking entry permits might have to demonstrate that they have recently received training on their rights and obligations.
The FWC has issued an AMIEU official and bipolar sufferer a conditional entry permit after confirming conditions can be imposed to satisfy the "fit and proper person" test.
The FWC has banned a CFMEU official from holding an entry permit for 19 months over his "serious and ugly" behaviour towards an FWBC inspector on a building site last year that was captured on video and played to the Heydon Royal Commission.
The Federal Court in fining the CFMEU $545,000 for unlawful industrial action has warned that it can't expect to keep its registration as a trade union while it "persistently abuses" its privileges.
The FWC has accepted the legitimacy of a Baiada policy that bans NUW officials, when exercising their entry rights to hold discussions with employees, from carrying mobiles and tablets that are capable of taking photos or video on its sites, but has re-listed the matter to consider "alternative solutions".
