Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has told a Senate Estimates committee that she had no obligation to disclose the resignation of ABCC deputy commissioner and in-house counsel Anthony Southall QC and that she only became aware yesterday of his reasons for departing.
The Federal Court at a directions hearings on Friday will deal with multimillion dollar bids by Qube Logistics and Patrick Stevedores to sue the MUA and officials for damages as a result of bans earlier this year on loading and unloading containers at Port Botany.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered Glencore subsididary Oaky Creek Coal to stop conducting surveillance of locked-out employees of its Oaky North underground coal mine in Queensland.
In a decision that could redefine representation before the FWC, a full bench has found that a law firm's "substantial" preparation of Woolworths' defence in an unfair dismissal case required permission even though it didn't appear as the company's advocate.
The NUW is pushing a claim for annual pay rises of around 6%, more full-time positions and enhanced redundancy entitlements at four Woolworths distribution centres employing about 2000 workers.
The ABCC's in-house counsel has resigned after just weeks in the job, in order to "totally disassociate" himself from the actions of the watchdog's former leader, Nigel Hadgkiss.
The AWU has accused the Registered Organisations Commission of "muckraking" as it examines political and campaign donations made under former national secretary Bill Shorten, while the watchdog has also launched its first investigation into an employer group, the Queensland Hotels Association.
The Federal Court has ordered the CFMEU and a delegate to pay almost $100,000 in penalties for the coercion involved when he prevented a subcontractor's employee from working on a job because he wasn't a union member.
Wage rises in private sector agreements have sunk to a new 26-year low, while the number of agreements approved has collapsed to a 22-year low, according to Department of Employment data.
A Federal Circuit Court judge has lamented his inability to impose higher maximum fines on the CFMEU, observing that the union he dubbed Australia's "most recidivist corporate offender" seemed to consider such penalties as "nothing more than an occupational hazard".
