Union's Qantas entry notice too broad, says FWA; Federal Court to hear all HSU East administration bids; CPSU reassures members on credit cards, travel; ABCC wins penalties against construction company for sham contracting; UnionsWA seeks 7% increase to minimum wage; and Who's who at the AMWU?
Fair Work Australia has launched pecuniary penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against the Health Services Union and three of its former Victoria No.1 branch officials.
The President of the NSW IRC, Justice Roger Boland, says there is "merit" in calls to increase access to compulsory arbitration in the wake of the protracted Qantas, Victorian nurses, Cochlear and Boeing disputes, and that it is "quite anathema to the Australian character and the ethos of a fair go to sit idly by whilst industrial parties slug it out to a standstill for no gain on either side".
Fair Work Australia Vice President Graeme Watson has called for a stronger focus on promotion of best practice in the workplace, but says a new institution might be needed to deliver it, as FWA and the FWO don't have the skills and parts of FWA are too dominated by people with union backgrounds who are more likely to frighten than enlighten workplaces with low or no union presence.
FWA directs Canberra to fast-track issues paper on scope of apprentice wage review; Shorten says Government to respond to review in late June or in July; No case for discounting minimum wage rise, says ACTU; Qantas to make 500 maintenance workers redundant; BHPB Bowen Basin mineworkers going out for a week; Lawyers' peak body derides workers compensation scheme deficit claim; and NSW unions begin advertising campaign against workers compensation changes.
The Federal Court has prevented a door manufacturing company from asking its workforce to approve a draft enterprise agreement which included the CFMEU in the title and list of parties bound by the agreement despite the union opposing the proposed agreement.
An Aboriginal land council has failed to overturn an order that it pay almost $22,000 compensation to a casual survey worker for ceasing to offer him work because of his epilepsy.
Former HSU national secretary Craig Thomson has today accused the FWA officer who investigated his conduct of bias and selectivity, while he has maintained his position that other officials set up his alleged calls and payments to escort agencies.
The Federal Court has fined a labour hire company that admitted after a Fair Work Ombudsman investigation that it refused to hire a married couple because they were not members of the MUA.
The adverse action claim against House of Representatives Speaker Peter Slipper will resume in the Federal Court on June 15, after a federal government interlocutory bid to strike out the case didn't proceed in Sydney today.
