The High Court has refused the CFMEU special leave to challenge last year's Victorian Court of Appeal finding that the Boral group could rely on the tort of intimidation to recover millions in damages for concrete supply bans.
The Federal Court has reserved its decision in a case in which Esso Australia argues that members of the AWU took unprotected industrial action, which cut its oil and gas production in Bass Strait in March and April.
The High Court will today hear the CFMEU's argument that Boral can't use court discovery processes to force the union to produce documents that might expose it to punishment for contempt for allegedly defying injunctions on Victoria's Regional Rail project.
The head of Networks NSW, which owns the power "poles and wires" entities that are to be privatised if the Coalition wins Saturday's NSW election, is pushing for FWC approval of agreements to be conditional on them undergoing an objective "productivity test" and is backing calls for the creation of a separate FWC appeals jurisdiction.
The High Court will in April hear the CFMEU's argument that it should not be compelled to give Boral information to help the company win its contempt case against the union for allegedly defying injunctions at Victoria's Regional Rail project.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's secondary boycott case against the CFMEU construction and general division's Victorian branch has been set down for a six-week trial in September next year.
In an important ruling on the definition of industrial action, the Federal Court has held that the provision of sensitive information to the media by employees is not "protected" under the Fair Work Act and might leave them vulnerable to breach of contract and coercion claims.
In another instance of the FWBC's tougher stance under Nigel Hadgkiss, the inspectorate has begun Federal Court action against 23 workers accused of taking unprotected industrial action at the $1.8 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital project.
The Federal Court has refused to delay the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate's unlawful coercion case against the CFMEU over the 2012 Grocon blockade, finding that the company's contempt charges against the union in the Victorian Supreme Court are not criminal proceedings.
The Productivity Commission in a new report has repeated its call for governments to adopt Victorian-style procurement guidelines to regulate substandard IR conduct in the construction industry, but has warned they might need to be modified to avoid a clash with the Fair Work Act.
