The MUA has given notice of five consecutive 24-hour stoppages at the Dampier supply base operated by Mermaid Marine Australia, starting from Wednesday.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected a protected action ballot application by a union seeking to regulate the use of labour hire, after noting conflicting full bench authorities on what constitutes a "reasonable belief" that a claim contains permitted matters only.
In the first real IR test of the post-July 1 Senate's precarious balance of power, Palmer United Party senators voted with their Coalition colleagues last night to preserve, by one vote, the rights of the WA government and third parties to ask the Fair Work Commission to terminate damaging industrial action.
Senior Victorian Government Minister Robert Clark has told the HR Nicholls Society that he has drawn on all three of his portfolios to combat bad behaviour in the building industry and has flagged changes to strengthen the guidelines for contractors seeking state government work.
Adding campaign material to company correspondence, answering customer inquiries with automated messages about bargaining, and placing slogans on company cars are all valid forms of industrial action, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
A new report from a major employment law firm predicts that the Senate will pass the Abbott Government's Fair Work Act and building industry amendments, suggests the next reforms will be limits on industrial action and productivity requirements for enterprise agreements, and highlights the lower than expected activity in the FWC's anti-bullying jurisdiction.
Glencore Xstrata has won conditional approval for the enterprise agreement it struck with 21 non-union workers it hired when it reopened what had been its unionised Collinsville coal mine in Central Queensland earlier this year.
A Federal Court full court has agreed to stay FWBC penalty action against the CFMEU and eight officials over the Grocon blockades on the basis that the same conduct has already led to criminal proceedings, but has allowed the watchdog's unlawful coercion case to continue.
