Lawyers for CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon have asked the Victorian Supreme Court to quash blackmail charges brought against them over the Boral dispute.
The CFMEU's mining and energy division has flagged that its members will take protected industrial action at Victoria's Loy Yang power station within the next month.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash asked FWC President Iain Ross yesterday to constitute a full bench to review Deputy President Jeff Lawrence's decision to grant CEPU NSW postal & telecommunications branch secretary Jim Metcher an entry permit.
A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
Labor and Greens senators are calling on the Federal Government to establish a new authority to provide a "just transition" for workers expected to lose jobs during the shift away from coal-fired power generation, but the Coalition says it would just increase bureaucracy.
The FWC has rejected a union application for a bargaining order, after finding that redundancies triggered by protected industrial action do not necessarily constitute a breach of good faith bargaining obligations.
The FWC has ruled that the NUW can rely on evidence given to the Heydon Royal Commission by former official Nick Belan in its defence of his unfair dismissal claim, because the Commission is not a court.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has hailed the passage of legislation to re-establish the ABCC, but the Senate crossbench won a string of amendments that will place new checks on the operations of the construction watchdog and on employers.
A full Federal Court has found a Catholic employer terminated the employment of a school coordinator who had been charged over indecent assault of a minor, opening the way for him to pursue his unfair dismissal claim in the Fair Work Commission.
The FWC has ordered an employer to hold a mandatory attendance ballot to gauge whether workers want to bargain, rejecting an employer association's argument that it has no power to do so.
