Under-fire HSU branch leader Diana Asmar has been ordered not to use union funds to cover the costs of defending FWC allegations that she received "cashbacks" and unwarranted reimbursements, while also being directed to provide undertakings not to initiate any further reprisals against three officials who maintain that the branch no longer operates effectively.
A court has ordered long-serving Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas to pay indemnity costs - expected to reach six figures - for his vexatious rules case that sought to wreak havoc against union executive members and embarrass and harass them.
Two new FWC members have invoked Jon Bon Jovi, author Frank Hardy and a former MinterEllison senior partner at a ceremony welcoming them to the tribunal, with one vowing to show respect to "sometimes angry and truculent" parties and the other recalling decades devoted to trying to help people "have a voice and get that voice heard".
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has launched a Federal Court bid to fine and disqualify CFMEU manufacturing division national secretary Michael O'Connor as co-chair of First Super for allegedly using its funds to pay the wages of a union employee.
Newly-installed CFMEU construction division administrator Mark Irving KC has told members that "militancy in accordance with the [Fair Work] Act" is not unlawful and that the union will not make political donations or take "positions" at ALP conferences while he is in charge.
A welcome ceremony for new FWC Vice President Mark Gibian has heard he is a polite but "devastating" cross-examiner renowned for his calm court manner, while an employer representative said the Albanese Government has removed from the Bar one of the "sharpest tools unions have in their toolbox".
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.
FWC GM Murray Furlong has applied to the Federal Court today to have four CFMEU construction and general division branches put into administration, while he has left the door open for two more to go the same way.
