Business groups are pushing the Abbott Government to drop a requirement in its Fair Work amendments that the FWC take account of prevailing industry standards in approving employer proposals to resolve deadlocked greenfields negotiations, in submissions to a Senate inquiry.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has clarified the circumstances in which the tribunal can use its own-motion powers to impose restrictions on unions that have abused their entry rights.
The FWBC's application for an interlocutory injunction to stop the CFMEU taking industrial action at the $400 million Bald Hills Wind Farm project in South Gippsland was headed off yesterday when the union gave an undertaking to the Federal Court not to disrupt work on the site.
FWBC head Nigel Hadgkiss has called for agreement clauses allowing industry-wide RDOs, weekend shutdowns and restrictions on subcontractors and labour hire to be "consigned to the past where they belong".
In one of the first rulings since meal rooms became the default meeting place for union discussions with employees, the FWC has refused to issue an order giving the NUW unfettered access to workers at a Coles distribution centre, despite finding that the chain's new right of entry policy is inconsistent with the Fair Work Act.
The Federal Court has ordered the CFMEU (construction and general division) and WA branch assistant secretary Joe McDonald to pay a total of $193,600 for their part in an unlawful stopwork at a Pilbara site.
United Voice has asked the Fair Work Commission to order Glad Cleaning Services Pty Ltd to produce employment records for cleaners at several Melbourne CBD offices, after allegedly overhearing the company's HR manager on a mobile phone during a tram ride admitting Glad removed documents before a union inspection.
