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.
The FWC says it suspended certain ETU work bans on NSW's power transmission network because Transgrid "clearly established" the action threatened lives, safety, health or welfare, but the union is celebrating the rejection of the private operator's latest "substandard" offer.
A FWC full bench has clarified what constitutes "significant" damage to the national economy and when an employer can be considered an "important part" of it, in reasons for overturning the suspension of protected action by sugar industry workers.
MEU members at Batchfire's Callide thermal coal mine in Queensland have overwhelmingly endorsed a protected action ballot, hot on the heels of the FWC's first same-job, same-pay ruling for the site's labour hire workers, who will benefit from any bargaining gains at the site.
The FWC has found two types of proposed industrial action against an employer unlawful because they lack specificity, but has also labelled the company "disingenuous" for objecting to the original PABO, withdrawing its concerns and then re-ventilating them a month later.
A construction company has failed in its bid to stop potential strikes amid claims of union interference in the protected action ballot process, the FWC pointing out that it cannot make orders preventing industrial action yet to be endorsed or notified.
An employer is opposing a CFMEU request to have the FWC hold a joint post-PABO compulsory conciliation conference relating to two separate deals for its workers on the Cross River Rail project in South-East Queensland.
The FWC has rejected an employer's bid to limit the amount of confidential employee information it must give an independent agent ahead of a protected action ballot, while it has also refused to amend the proposed PABO to include a safety commitment.
A senior FWC member has granted unions a protected action ballot period of eight working days despite an employer's claim his decision in Nilsen established a 10-day minimum for electronic voting, and its concerns a shorter timeframe will hamper preparations for the s448A compulsory conference.
Federal Police officers might impose protected bans on accompanying low-risk politicians at airports and attending low-security MPs' and senators' functions, if a protected action ballot that closes early next month wins approval.
