A five-member FWC full bench has wound up its "targeted" review of modern awards with a report acknowledging that while a "lack of consensus" meant it could not determine key issues, it will now kickstart consideration of six "priority" matters that include simplifying the retail award, developing a working-from-home term in the clerks award and reviewing fixed-term contract provisions in higher education awards.
The ACTU told its employees yesterday they should work from home due to the prospect of protest rallies by supporters of the CFMEU's construction and general division.
The Labor Party's national executive has this afternoon resolved to indefinitely suspend the CFMEU construction and general division's affiliations with the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian branches of the party and to refuse political donations from them.
The FWO will investigate whether the CFMEU's construction and general division's making of agreements has been infected by adverse action, coercion, misrepresentation or other unlawful conduct, after a request from Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.
ACTU leader Sally McManus estimates it will be "years" before the CFMEU's construction and general division rejoins the union peak body, while revealing that former Victorian branch secretary John Setka "hates my guts" and that confidantes have expressed concern for her safety after allegations of organised crime's widespread involvement in the industry.
The FWC has granted extra time for a worker to challenge a dismissal she alleges came about while she underwent intensive cancer treatment, with no notification other than a request to hand over her work on her employer's WeChat group chat.
The ACTU executive has voted overwhelmingly to suspend the CFMEU construction and general division's membership of the peak body in the wake of allegations of criminality, while supporting the Federal Government's push to install an independent administrator in all but two of the division's branches around the country.
The fallout from allegations of criminality within the CFMEU construction and general division's Victorian branch is quickly spreading across the Labor-led states, with NSW Premier Chris Minns the latest to take action.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke will support a Federal Court application by FWC general manager Murray Furlong to take over the administration of CFMEU construction and general division branches facing accusations of corruption and criminality.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has this morning told a media conference this morning that he will introduce enabling legislation at the earliest opportunity if the FWC is blocked from appointing administrators to any branch of the CFMEU's construction and general division it believes is caught up in fresh allegations of corrupt and criminal behaviour.
