A mass meeting of BlueScope Steel workers in Wollongong has endorsed a "game-changing" rescue package that cuts 500 jobs, freezes pay for three years and scraps bonuses in a bid to help keep the steelworks afloat.
Faced with the threat of the closure of Bluescope Steel's Port Kembla steelmaking operation unless significant operational savings can be made, the Fair Work Commission has allowed the company to require maintenance staff to operate machines without any change in pay rates.
The Federal Court has rejected a major external service provider's bid for costs stemming from a failed adverse action and breach of contract claim, in a ruling that canvasses the "commonplace" difficulties parties can face when preparing for trial.
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.
The MUA told an interlocutory hearing in Brisbane today that stevedore Hutchison should reinstate 97 workers from its Port Botany and Brisbane container terminals, because the company had breached its agreement when it engaged in tokenistic rather than substantive consultation with its workforce.
A full shutdown of BlueScope Steel's operation in Port Kembla would double the local unemployment rate to above 15% and deliver a $3.3 billion economic hit, according to a study commissioned by the AWU.
Leighton has failed to knock out most of a manager's adverse action claim that alleges the construction giant made him redundant for complaining it failed to disclose a project's $205 million budget blowout and overstated its revenue by $1.4 billion.
The AMWU has responded to the continued loss of Australian manufacturing jobs and falling union membership by making 11 officials redundant in Victoria and NSW over recent months.
An FWC full bench will tomorrow hear an MUA challenge to the s418 order issued this week to halt an oil tanker crew’s protests against shipping company Teekay Shipping (Australia) replacing them with foreign workers.
