Weeks after the CFMMEU's mining and energy division borrowed from the ABCC's playbook to argue for its demerger from the broader union, the latter has returned fire in similar terms, suggesting the division is hardly on the side of the angels itself.
A court has declined to take the "extreme" step of throwing out a general protections case with a "long and troubled history" brought by a former FSU employee against the union, its national secretary and a state leader.
The ROC has found the IEU WA branch's former secretary appears to have benefited from spending union funds but has decided not to pursue the matter given the time, resources and cost it would require and the branch's desire to drop it.
The ROC has resolved to seek penalties against the AWU in the Federal Court, after an 18-month investigation concluded it had committed 27,000 breaches over nine years of obligations to keep accurate membership records and "significantly overstated" the real numbers.
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.
Private sector agreements approved by the FWC in the June quarter paid average annualised wage increases of 2.9%, lifting growth to the fastest pace in two years, but remaining at less than half of the CPI.
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 new report says that wage theft in Australian freight shipping is costing seafarers about $65 million a year and necessitates changes to the Fair Work Act and greater powers and cooperation for regulators.
The FWC's new leading indicator of bargained wage rises - officially launched today - shows that deals lodged in the first half of last month paid an average increase of 3%, up on those in the most recent DEWR data.
