The CFMMEU's mining energy division looks likely to be able to proceed with its plans to demerge from the broader union, after the parties reached a peace deal.
The FWC has given the CFMMEU's legal team access to the mining and energy division's membership roll ahead of a hearing into its demerger bid, after the amalgamated union argued it owns the division's records and rejected suggestions its in-house lawyers might misuse the information.
Incoming CFMMEU construction and general division national secretary Zachary (Zach) Smith will take over from the long-serving Dave Noonan in April, after 15 years with the union and serving as leader and assistant leader of the ACT branch for the past three years.
The FWC has refused to stay a MUA rule change that reserves two new full-time assistant national secretary positions for a woman and an Indigenous person, until the tribunal hears a challenge from a retired former union member.
The CFMMEU has foreshadowed jurisdictional challenges to the applications by two of its divisions to demerge and operate as separate standalone unions, in a sign of lengthy legal proceedings to come.
A court has found that a union's head office is prevented by its own rules from hearing accusations of "gross misbehaviour" brought against a State divisional leader.
A lawyer overseeing a merger of the TWU and the Virgin pilots' union says a FWC finding that they are not amalgamating opens the way to a faster and more cost-effective process and might have implications for other unions with similar eligibility criteria.
The CFMMEU's mining and energy division has launched two-pronged legal action in the Federal Court, seeking to overturn the broader union's recent rule changes and to secure an inquiry into the election of former MUA WA branch leader Christy Cain as national secretary.
The Federal Court has refused to grant an injunction against the RTBU's national executive hearing charges brought under the union rules of alleged "gross misbehaviour" by a Victorian-based official.
