A workplace ban on employees accessing leave to participate in a union-led rally on Monday has been overturned, on an interlocutory basis, by the Federal Circuit Court, after it accepted the ETU's argument that the move breached workers' general protections.
The High Court will determine whether employers can circumvent sham contracting provisions by utilising a third party, such as a labour hire company, to indirectly engage workers, after the FWO today won special leave to challenge a full Federal Court ruling.
The MUA has told the FWC that sacked stevedoring workers at Hutchison's Port Botany terminal, who last night temporarily won their jobs back, have been unable to do so because security guards are preventing access to the site.
The Federal Court has this evening granted an interlocutory order sought by the MUA to stop stevedore Hutchison Ports from proceeding with plans to dismiss almost 100 employees at its Sydney and Brisbane container terminals.
A former abattoir worker, who received unpaid entitlements only after FWO intervention, can also seek damages for negligence after a High Court ruling today, but the NSW Court of Appeal will now need to establish who employed him.
The ACTU is seeking to build opposition to cutting weekend penalty rates through a mass door-knock in marginal seats across Australia in mid-September, while employer associations are pushing crossbench senators to back the Government's bill to re-establish the ABCC.
Five waterfront workers have been awarded a total of $120,000 in compensation for the emotional distress they suffered after the MUA named them in "scab posters" that had them fearing for their safety.
A CommSec customer service officer placed on performance plans and counselled for breaching the company's "clean desk" policy has failed to convince the FWC he was bullied by his employer and two supervisors.
The Australian Law Reform Commission in its "freedoms" interim report has suggested that it might be "desirable" for the inquiry to closely examine whether the IR regime unjustifiably encroaches on freedom of association.
