The Napthine Government has introduced more stringent requirements for companies tendering for public sector construction work under a new code and has imposed its first sanction on a builder since guidelines took effect in 2012.
In a wide-ranging judgment on federal right of entry laws, a senior FWC member has ruled that parties need to pay more than "lip service" to the requirement to agree on meeting rooms for union discussions with workers, and has warned a CFMEU employee that he needs to take "stock of his conduct".
Major builder Lend Lease has lost its bid to have a full FWC bench hear its allegations of multiple right of entry breaches by the building unions, while the MBA is arguing for the national adoption of Queensland's restrictions on right of entry under WHS laws.
The Senate's Education and Employment Legislation Committee has recommended today that the upper house pass the government's Fair Work Amendment Bill unamended, with the ALP and the Greens tabling separate reports opposing the legislation.
The Fair Work Commission has granted an entry permit to a CFMEU construction and general division organiser, rejecting the FWBC's argument that it was obliged to give weight to the union's poor record of compliance with industrial laws.
Business groups are pushing the Abbott Government to drop a requirement in its Fair Work amendments that the FWC take account of prevailing industry standards in approving employer proposals to resolve deadlocked greenfields negotiations, in submissions to a Senate inquiry.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has clarified the circumstances in which the tribunal can use its own-motion powers to impose restrictions on unions that have abused their entry rights.
In one of the first rulings since meal rooms became the default meeting place for union discussions with employees, the FWC has refused to issue an order giving the NUW unfettered access to workers at a Coles distribution centre, despite finding that the chain's new right of entry policy is inconsistent with the Fair Work Act.
The Federal Court has issued a sweeping injunction to stop CFMEU construction and general division WA branch assistant secretary Joe McDonald from entering Brookfield Multiplex construction sites for nearly three years and ordered the union to pay the company $500,000 in compensation for strikes he incited at two major projects last year.
