In a case left over from the now abandoned breakaway bid by the NSW printing division of the AMWU, the majority of a full bench of the Federal Court has upheld the validity of the Workplace Relations Act's little-used disamalgamation provisions.
The Queensland branch of the CEPU plans to send out another batch of letters to non-union Telstra workers asking them to pay a $400 fee-for-service despite criticism that its action amounts to backdoor compulsory unionism.
Maverick abbatoir operator G&K O'Connor has failed in its bid to shift its employees onto the federal meat processing award, after an IRC full bench found the employer's purpose was to drive them onto AWAs.
Mine workers at BHP Coal's Appin, Cordeaux and Tower collieries in the Illawarra region of NSW will revert to award conditions, after the IRC yesterday terminated the expired enterprise agreements for the three pits.
BHP Iron Ore will continue to be frustrated from offering individual contracts to its mine workers, after the Federal Court today stayed last week's ruling that removed barriers to the individual contracts strategy.
The Victorian County Court has fined the Victorian branch of the AMWU $12,500 over a raft of industrial action taken by maintenance workers at an animal waste recycling plant while their enterprise agreement was still in force.
The NSW IRC will have to look at whether enterprise agreements up for approval contain an anti-discrimination clause under new principles adopted by a five-member full bench.
In another victory for casual workers - this time in the field rather than the IRC - a resort in the Blue Mountains, NSW, has backed down on its earlier decision to contract out 40 casual cleaners' jobs.
In two separate cases brought by the Employment Advocate, the Federal Court has found that the Queensland branches of the CFMEU (construction division) and the BLF and three union organisers breached freedom of association laws when attempting to get workers to join up.
