In a significant decision as to what constitutes industrial action, a full Federal Court has found that the legislative framework does not capture instances where a subcontractor's workers down tools with the support of their direct employer.
A Federal Court judge has questioned the "wisdom or fairness" of laws requiring employers to subtract four hours' pay for as little as 10 minutes unprotected action, after finding the AWU breached the Fair Work Act when an official asked a BlueScope manager not to dock returning strikers for starting a shift late.
The FWC has found the RTBU organised unprotected industrial action at Queensland Rail in the lead-up to the state's River Fire Festival weekend and couched a directive discouraging members from participating "in terms that rallied" them.
The union leading the campaign against prospective job losses at a major brewery is at risk of being sidelined after the FWC found it "reached the line between [unacceptably careless disregard] and. . . deliberate non-compliance" in failing to communicate restraining notices to members.
The FWO has launched a challenge to last month's Federal Court order for the MUA to pay a $38,000 fine for a single contravention of the prohibition on unlawful strikes, when the watchdog was seeking $3.6 million for what it says was more than 500 breaches during industrial action against stevedore Hutchison Ports.
A judge has today comprehensively rejected an FWO attempt to rewrite the way courts assess fines for unlawful strikes, ordering the CFMMEU's MUA division to pay $38,000 for a solitary contravention after the watchdog sought $3.6 million in penalties for more than 500 breaches.
The FWO is seeking to fine the CFMMEU's MUA division more than $3.5 million for unlawful industrial action against Hutchison Ports, using a novel argument that historic contraventions of the same Fair Work Act provision denies the union the benefit of the legislation's single course of conduct mechanism.
The Victorian Supreme Court has rejected an application by the CFMMEU to delay civil damages proceedings brought by the operator of Port of Melbourne's new "robo" terminal until its merger with the MUA and TCFU is bedded down.
The FWC is set this afternoon to hear Patrick Stevedores' application to Commission to stop alleged planned industrial action by MUA members at its Port Botany container terminal in support of maintenance workers who are about to embark on a seven-day protected strike.
Esso Australia is seeking to prevent the Fair Work Commission from making a workplace determination for its Bass Strait oil and gas operations, arguing its legal basis has been "fatally undermined" by a recent High Court ruling.
