The construction firm Downer EDI paid $25,000 to help end a "community picket" of a heliport being used to fly workers to a Bass Strait gas project, the Heydon Royal Commission heard today.
The High Court has refused the CFMEU special leave to challenge last year's Victorian Court of Appeal finding that the Boral group could rely on the tort of intimidation to recover millions in damages for concrete supply bans.
The High Court will today hear the CFMEU's argument that Boral can't use court discovery processes to force the union to produce documents that might expose it to punishment for contempt for allegedly defying injunctions on Victoria's Regional Rail project.
The CFMEU construction and general division's "cavalier attitude" to court orders has cost it another $125,000, with the Federal Court finding it in contempt of undertakings not to block access to a Victorian wind farm project last year.
In further legal fallout from the 2012 Grocon dispute, the Federal Court has ruled that the CFMEU and eight of its officials unlawfully coerced the company to agree to its demand to employ union-nominated shop stewards when they blocked access to the Myer Emporium and McNab Avenue sites.
The High Court will in April hear the CFMEU's argument that it should not be compelled to give Boral information to help the company win its contempt case against the union for allegedly defying injunctions at Victoria's Regional Rail project.
Honouring one of its election commitments, the Victorian Labor Government will today introduce legislation to abolish the former Coalition Government's anti-picketing laws.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's secondary boycott case against the CFMEU construction and general division's Victorian branch has been set down for a six-week trial in September next year.
Tasmania's Legislative Council has passed a Government bill designed to curtail rights to engage in workplace-disrupting pickets and protests, but only after removing mandatory jail terms for repeat offenders.
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.
