The CFMEU construction division's Queensland branch has suffered multiple setbacks in its bargaining stoush with the head contractor of the state's $7 billion Cross River Rail project, with workers voting up a new deal put directly by the company and the FWC separately issuing two orders stopping unprotected industrial action.
A FWC member has found no plausible reason for a boilermaker's co-workers and managers to conspire to have him sacked for allegedly drawing a p-nis on a client's fuel tanker, concluding that the more likely explanation lay in a colleague's suggestion that he simply had a "brain fart".
The FWC has declined to order a worker to stop s-xually harassing a colleague after accepting he regretted his "inappropriate" remark and that the employer would reduce future interaction between the two employees "as much as possible".
NSW IR Minister Sophie Cotsis has told Parliament a bill to place the CFMEU construction and general division's State branch into administration for five years "strikes the balance" between not interfering in unions' important role and stamping out "corruption and gross misconduct".
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has joined the HSU national executive in calling for the secretary of the union's Victoria No 1 branch, Diana Asmar, to stand aside pending the outcome of a FWC investigation into alleged financial irregularities.
The FWC has reinforced its power to delve into the agreement-making process, regardless of employers' declarations and whether a proposed deal is supported by all those involved.
After Woolworths again delayed backpaying short-changed distribution centre workers, the FWC has recommended the supermarket giant "do all that is necessary to ensure" it pays affected SDA members at the Brisbane distribution centre, by the end of this month.
FWC Deputy President Val Gostencnik is among nine new judges appointed to the Federal Circuit and Family Court from today to increase its capacity to hear protection visa and migration cases.