The FWBC has had a partial victory after a court ruled that 74 individual workers engaged in unprotected industrial action at Perth's $1.2 billion children's hospital construction site in 2013.
A key witness to a $100,000 payment by a builder to the CFMEU construction and general division's NSW branch has told the Heydon Royal Commission that he felt some hostility towards the union's former secretary, Andrew Ferguson.
Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon says he now won't be delivering the annual Sir Garfield Barwick Address that is hosted by the Liberal Party, but the ACTU and Labor Party are calling on him to stand down or for Prime Minister Tony Abbott to reverse his "captain's pick".
Four unions today started protected industrial action at the Melbourne-based plasma and vaccines manufacturer CSL Ltd, on the same day it announced a $US1.4 billion net profit.
A former abattoir worker, who received unpaid entitlements only after FWO intervention, can also seek damages for negligence after a High Court ruling today, but the NSW Court of Appeal will now need to establish who employed him.
A full shutdown of BlueScope Steel's operation in Port Kembla would double the local unemployment rate to above 15% and deliver a $3.3 billion economic hit, according to a study commissioned by the AWU.
The MUA is tomorrow taking Hutchison Ports to the Federal Court over the sacking by midnight text and email of almost 100 workers from its Port Botany and Brisbane container terminals, while union peak bodies have stepped in to coordinate pickets.
Workers at Woolworths' Laverton distribution centre in Melbourne's western suburbs are today defying Fair Work Commission orders to return to work, while at its distribution centre in the city's north tensions are growing over relocation plans which the NUW says are about paving the way for increased automation.
The Federal Circuit Court has taken into account a former public servant's deceptive conduct in requiring him to pay $15,000 to secure his former employer's potential costs if he proceeds with an adverse action case.
Hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses in the private sector are increasing at a record low of 2.2% a year in trend terms, according to the ABS Wage Price Index, released today.
