A "no protected action" clause in an expired agreement is no barrier to unions applying for a protected action ballot for a new deal, Fair Work Australia has ruled.
In an important ruling, the full Federal Court has rejected a Qantas challenge to a Federal Magistrates Court finding that it coerced and took adverse action against an aircraft engineer who complained about being underpaid while on an overseas posting.
The High Court has this morning unanimously dismissed the AEU's battle against the federal registration of rival union the Australian Principals' Federation, holding it is a validly registered organisation.
NSW to legislate to install HSU East administrator; DPP won’t pursue criminal action against HSU national office and officials; Builder faces big costs bill after conspiracy case fails; FWA requires five days notice of Victorian teacher action; and NSW employers say Act wrongly assumes workplaces are adversarial.
The Federal Opposition will consider the recommendations of the Fair Work Act review, but will probably conduct its own if it takes office, according to Shadow Workplace Relations Minister Eric Abetz.
Coates Hire has lodged a challenge to an FWA ruling that it breached good faith bargaining obligations when it directly offered to backpay workers a 4.5% increase if they voted up a four-year deal it put to them after negotiations with unions broke down, largely over an opt-out clause.
The Federal Court has set down three weeks from June 5 to hear the spate of HSU legal action on foot - including separate bids by Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten and the union's acting national president Chris Brown to place HSU East into administration - but has questioned whether it has jurisdiction over the state-registered branch.
NSW Police won't rule out laying criminal charges over interference with its investigation into the HSU's East branch, after it raided the union's headquarters today and "intercepted" a person with a "bag of documents" in the carpark below.
The Federal Court has accepted a settlement of the "motelling" dispute reached between contractors on Woodside's giant Pluto project and the CFMEU, AMWU and CEPU that suspends hefty individual fines faced by more than 1300 employees in exchange for a seven-year moratorium on industrial action.
It is employers seeking increased discretion over terms and conditions that overwhelmingly initiate IFAs, according to the ACTU; while employer groups want four-year terms for the individual arrangements, with no unilateral termination unless both sides agree to allow it.
