BHP Coal and its internal and external labour hire providers are again seeking to draw a secrecy cloak around its bid to ward off same-job, same-pay orders on the basis that its OS entities are providing a service rather than labour.
The FWC is set to convene an initial hearing next week into the CFMEU manufacturing division's application to demerge, using legislative provisions passed in July that gained new urgency after then construction division leader John Setka's threats to derail Australian Football League projects.
In a case that underlines the Commission's challenges in dealing with self-represented parties, a FWC member has refused to step back from hearing an anti-bullying claim, finding that a worker's 18 grounds for recusal, including the "unjust removal" of the worker's advocate from a hearing, had "no logical connection" with any possibility of bias.
In a warning to employers undertaking investigations of workplace complaints, the FWC has ordered a mushroom grower to compensate a former harvest team leader sacked on the basis of "scanty" hearsay evidence and the "sheer number" of allegations about bullying and racial discrimination.
A full Federal Court has found Qube Ports lacked standing to retrospectively vary expired agreements, clearing the way for the CFMEU's maritime division to pursue the stevedoring giant for millions in allegedly wrongly-deducted "gap" payments from up to 1000 wharfies' remuneration.
NSW PSA members have voted to accept a 10% pay rise over three years plus a 1% super boost in what State Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says is "proof that a mature government" can negotiate a deal that's good for both taxpayers and workers.
Australians struggling with the cost of living crisis support taking action to address both their incomes and costs and don't swallow suggestions that a wage-price spiral is responsible for inflation, according to a new Australia Institute report released today.
The National Construction Industry Forum has agreed at today's meeting that it will develop within six months a reform blueprint to deliver "real, long-term change", including to the sector's culture, according to its chair, Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt.
Rebel unions "outraged" by the Albanese Government's decision to put the CFMEU's construction division into administration and the ACTU's support for it will consider setting up a rival peak group late this year.
The FWO has confirmed it is pursuing 42 investigations into potential Fair Work Act breaches in the building industry involving "most branches" of the CFMEU's construction and general division.
