A full Federal Court has today ushered in a new age in which union officials are held personally liable for breaching IR laws, ordering a CFMMEU organiser to pay almost $20,000 from his own pocket for his role in disrupting work at a construction site in 2013.
A judge has today comprehensively rejected an FWO attempt to rewrite the way courts assess fines for unlawful strikes, ordering the CFMMEU's MUA division to pay $38,000 for a solitary contravention after the watchdog sought $3.6 million in penalties for more than 500 breaches.
In a significant ruling that might reduce penalties regulators can win for Fair Work Act breaches, the Federal Court has found that the legislation's double jeopardy provision prevents the imposition of separate fines for related contraventions arising from the same conduct.
The MUA delegate whose loss of casual stevedoring shifts sparked last year's Webb Dock blockade was earlier mistakenly provided with a letter by the container terminal operator's HR-IR director declaring him a full-timer, the Federal Court has been told.
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 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 IEU is recommending NSW and ACT Catholic school teachers and support workers vote "yes" to a revised deal breaking an extended deadlock over guaranteed access to FWC arbitration, while employers have committed to making a second back-payment to the start of the year.
Pilots at budget airline Tigerair have warned that planned industrial action from Friday to Sunday could cause flight delays and cancellations, but unions say it could be back off the table by 5pm today if the employer improves its pay offer and budges on rostering, leave and parking costs.
The Fair Work Commission acceded to a bid by mining giants to terminate a coal loading agreement after concluding that a system of "self-directed" work teams that constrains management prerogative "needs to go".
The Victorian Supreme Court has rejected an application by the CFMMEU to delay civil damages proceedings brought by the operator of Port of Melbourne's new "robo" terminal until its merger with the MUA and TCFU is bedded down.
