The FWC has taken the unusual step of allowing an employer's HR manager on behalf of workers to sign off on an agreement not backed by the CFMEU's construction division, after accepting evidence that employees were "reluctant" to put their names to the deal.
The CFMEU construction division's Queensland branch has suffered multiple setbacks in its bargaining stoush with the head contractor of the state's $7 billion Cross River Rail project, with workers voting up a new deal put directly by the company and the FWC separately issuing two orders stopping unprotected industrial action.
Protected industrial action by Royal Flying Doctor Service nurses has been put on hold after the ballot agent named the wrong union on the voting report.
In a matter closely examining when building workers can down tools in response to potential safety risks, a court has found that two union officials breached workplace laws when involved in effectively shutting down a major construction site over concerns about a fire hydrant and a belligerent project manager said to pose a "psycho-social hazard".
Striking Ingham's workers in two states are set to earn an average $100 more a week under an in-principle agreement struck on the back of 24-hour stoppages and a rancorous picket, after the FWC found that it could not make a s418 order to stop the blockade.
A FWC member has issued the "strongest recommendation" for AMWU members at an Ampol refinery to cease industrial action and vote up a new deal, after expressing her view that she lacked the power to convene a second post-PABO compulsory conciliation conference.
The NSW IRC is letting the IEU intervene in a State Government award application for public school teachers and make submissions alongside the NSW Teachers Federation, as the union pledges to leave "no doubt" it will reject locked-in low pay rises in Catholic schools.
The Perrottet Government's legal action over strikes by NSW public health nurses seeks to impose fines on their union, while also offering a pathway to pursue deregistration.
The Federal Court has trimmed the amount of interest to be added to its $2 million-plus damages ruling against the MUA after finding that Patrick and Qube took a "desultory" approach to pursuing the union over unlawful bans at Port Botany in 2017.
In a ruling giving close consideration to how compensation is assessed, the Federal Court has ordered the MUA to pay more than $2 million to Qube Logistics and Patrick stevedores over unlawful wharf stoppages in 2017.
