The ETU has confirmed that it will challenge a Federal Court ruling that "neuters" unions' rights to enter workplaces to organise workers through a restrictive interpretation of provisions allowing access for "discussions" with employees.
Union officials can't use their right to enter premises for discussions with members to gather signatures on petitions or "secure a commitment to a particular course of action in the future", the Federal Court has found, ruling in favour of an employer that blocked access for an organiser who sought workers' backing for a majority support determination.
In a significant decision on the nature of work, the FWC has found that the nursing home at the centre of one of Queensland's deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks should have paid employees for the time spent taking rapid antigen tests before the start of their shifts.
A CFMMEU organiser who engaged in threatening and coercive conduct, including stopping a concrete pour, has failed to convince the FWC to renew his entry permit, despite presenting evidence that he had recently completed training on the error of his ways.
A court has today imposed fines of 90% of the maximum on the "rogue" construction union and 80% on its Queensland leader for failing to provide 24 hours notice before officials entered a construction site for bargaining discussions with workers, after the head contractor insisted they be held off-site.
The Federal Court has criticised the ABCC's "misrepresentation" of evidence in pleadings and a media release, concluding the watchdog bore some responsibility for a subsequent report in a national newspaper that wrongly stated that a CFMMEU organiser made a "throat-slitting" gesture to a truck driver.
A judge has walked the fine line between factoring in the CFMMEU's history of legal transgressions and imposing a sanction proportionate to the breach by adding $10,000 to penalties levied on the union after an official blew cigarette smoke in an ER coordinator's face.
The Federal Court has rejected the ABCC's "cynical" view of CFMMEU-commissioned entry rights training for an inexperienced organiser who pushed over a Fulton Hogan manager when pressing to access parts of a Monash Freeway project site in 2017.
The CFMMEU has failed in an interlocutory court bid to enter tunnelling sites at Brisbane's $5 billion Cross River Rail Project, in the midst of a demarcation dispute with the AWU.
