A senior IR lawyer has told the HR Nicholls Society the Fair Work Act should be amended to ban protected industrial action that has serious consequences and to remove entirely the rights of high income earners to strike, in a presentation predicting the decline of the MUA's power and influence.
Tugboat workers in Port Hedland, the outlet for much of Australia's iron ore exports, have endorsed legally protected industrial action in pursuit of improved pay and conditions in a new agreement.
The FWC has ordered the TWU to postpone member-endorsed industrial action against Linfox Armaguard because the vagueness of the notices to the company would have required it to respond with "extreme measures" such as organising flying squads to replace workers.
Cash-in-transit company Linfox Armaguard has failed to stymie a TWU official's authority to sign a protected action application, but has won additional notice of bans on servicing ATMs.
The Fair Work Commission has held that the "genuinely trying" test is not a "moral" code and has granted the MUA protected ballot orders despite accepting that an employer was "rightly aggrieved" by its bargaining conduct.
The MUA and AMMA are accusing each other of shifting the goalposts in the drawn-out bargaining round for vessel operators in the offshore oil and gas industry, with the union to begin a 48-hour stoppage at pacesetting Tidewater Marine on Friday.
