The Australian subsidiary of a multinational construction company followed a "considered industrial strategy" devised by a former AMWU leader when it refused a senior union official entry to a project to speak to workers, a judge has found.
CFMEU construction division WA branch secretary Mick Buchan has won his first entry permit in a decade, following a FWC finding he meets the "fit and proper person" test five years after landing a fine for organising an illegal strike.
The FWC has restored MUA Sydney branch secretary Paul Keating's entry permit four years after he failed the fit and proper person test, accepting that his arrest for taking part in a peaceful Gaza protest did not sully his clean industrial record in the intervening period.
The FWC has issued an entry permit to a CFMEU organiser previously imprisoned for a two-day robbery spree, after an initially leery presidential member accepted that the former methamphetamine addict has turned his life around.
A Canberra contractor that blocked CFMEU officials from investigating safety issues has been hit with higher penalties after conceding that a judge mistakenly bundled obstruction and misrepresentation breaches together when determining fines.
The FWC has warned MEU general vice president Stephen Smyth it will not be so accommodating next time he wants to renew his entry permit should he ever repeat behaviour that attracted more than $80,000 in fines for using slurs such as "f--king scab", "maggot" and "dirty rat" during a coal mine strike.
A FWC presidential member has set out the extent to which he considers untested allegations should influence issuing of entry permits, while considering evidence that included CFMEU construction division administrator Mark Irving KC accusing a site manager of "play acting" in a confrontation with a union official captured on video.
A head contractor unlawfully blocked ETU organisers' access to labour hire linesworkers on an interstate power transmission project, the Federal Court has found, and the various reasons it provided for refusing entry appear "disingenuous".
The FWC has renewed an MUA organiser's entry permit, finding his arrest at a rally opposing the war in Gaza relevant, but not enough to prevent him passing the fit and proper person test, and a "removed" CFMEU organiser has won a new permit after the old one's automatic cancellation.
In its first sitting week, Queensland's Crisafulli Government has "rammed through" legislation to reduce health and safety permit holders' entry rights, to address what it says is the CFMEU's "weaponisation of workplace health and safety", and introduced legislation to re-establish the State productivity commission.
