NSW IR Minister Sophie Cotsis has told Parliament a bill to place the CFMEU construction and general division's State branch into administration for five years "strikes the balance" between not interfering in unions' important role and stamping out "corruption and gross misconduct".
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has joined the HSU national executive in calling for the secretary of the union's Victoria No 1 branch, Diana Asmar, to stand aside pending the outcome of a FWC investigation into alleged financial irregularities.
Two more same-job, same-pay applications are set to go to FWC full benches, after directions hearings before tribunal president Adam Hatcher last week, while the transparency of another RLHA order bid is under threat after BHP sought to suppress union submissions.
The High Court has granted the ACCC special leave to challenge the full Federal Court's quashing of a finding that the CFMEU's construction division induced and had knowing involvement in major building company J Hutchinson's unlawful boycott of a non-union waterproofing subcontractor.
The Federal Court will test whether employers can be sued for providing a "culturally unsafe" environment, in a racial discrimination case brought by a four-time AFL premiership player against his former club.
The Albanese Government will provide $3.6 billion to fund a 15% pay increase over two years for early childhood educators and care workers as a "retention payment" to the under-pressure sector, with the money contingent on employers having an enterprise agreement in place.
Efforts to install an administrator in the CFMEU's construction division branches have hit further speed humps in the NSW Industrial Court today, with counsel for the union claiming the Minns Government's application contains "fairly significant defects" that need to be corrected before the case can proceed.
The Federal Court has imposed a record penalty on a sushi restaurant chain to "disabuse" employers of the notion that penalties for underpayments are "an acceptable cost of doing business" and recommended that the Fair Work Ombudsman refer its chief executive's potential flouting of tax and migration laws to the ATO, Department of Home Affairs and ASIC.
The FWC's general manager has identified $187,000 in payments from the CFMEU construction division's Victorian branch, recorded as support for the re-election campaign of HSU branch leader Diana Asmar, as one of the actions justifying his application to put the division's national office and four branches in the hands of an administrator.
