Jobs and Innovation Minister Michaelia Cash will ask the Federal Court to set aside a subpoena for her to give evidence in the AWU challenge to last year's AFP raids on the union's Sydney and Melbourne offices.
The construction watchdog has applied for courts to impose orders to require personal payment of fines by union officials in 13 cases since a landmark High Court ruling in early March, a Senate Estimates committee heard today.
The Federal Court has rejected an ABCC bid to have it determine a question of law as to whether CFMMEU officials could rely on an exemption from federal laws when they used their state OHS entry rights to visit a Sunshine Coast road construction project but refused to show their permits.
The Greens are planning to introduce legislation next month to lift the minimum wage to 60% of the median, in line with the ACTU's "change the rules" policy.
The real hourly Sunday rates of workers fell last year in four industries that had penalty rates cut, despite the 3.3% increase in the minimum wage, according to new data from the Department of Jobs and Small Business.
The FWO is seeking to fine the CFMMEU's MUA division more than $3.5 million for unlawful industrial action against Hutchison Ports, using a novel argument that historic contraventions of the same Fair Work Act provision denies the union the benefit of the legislation's single course of conduct mechanism.
The Australian Public Services Commissioner John Lloyd is "biased" and should not be involved in the selection of a new Fair Work Ombudsman, Labor has claimed at a Senate Estimates hearing.
The FWC has tossed out for want of jurisdiction an "unprecedented" pay dispute lodged by sacked FAAA national division secretary Andrew Staniforth against Qantas to correct overpayments, with a senior deputy president stating he has never encountered a "stranger industrial proposition".
The FWC has renewed the entry permit of CFMMEU construction and general division WA branch president and organiser Vinnie Molina, on the condition that he undertake "emotional management" training to prevent a recurrence of infractions for which he has been fined almost $17,000 since 2012.
Greenway Chambers barrister Ingmar Taylor SC is calling for amendments to the Fair Work Act's requirement that people must obtain permission to be represented by external lawyers, arguing it is wasting time and resources and creating uncertainty.
