A court has fined the CFMEU and two organisers almost $100,000, after finding the union engaged in unlawful coercion and adverse action when it organised a blockade at the $1.6 billion Port of Melbourne expansion project because an employer refused to bargain.
Rio Tinto has agreed to sell its NSW coal interests – including the Coal & Allied operations that were at the centre of the late 1990s battle of the IR "titans" – to Chinese interests for $3.2 billion ($US2.45 billion).
The FWC has stayed the termination of the enterprise agreement for the Loy Yang power station and coal mine, conditional on CFMEU members refraining from taking any further industrial action until the appeal is decided.
The tone around deadlocked negotiations over a new agreement at Parmalat's Echuca processing plant has shifted dramatically over the past 24 hours, both sides believing a resolution is near after agreeing to divide up and rework contentious clauses before reconvening early next week.
The FWC has ordered the CFMEU's mining and energy division to stop inciting its members to ban overtime and take suspected sickies at AGL Energy's Loy Yang A power station.
An FWC full bench has accused the CFMEU of seeking to "disguise" what would be an exercise of judicial power over entry rights as an administrative matter and of relying on a "red herring" argument.
The ABCC is seeking special leave from the High Court to seek to overturn a recent decision that stymied the watchdog's push to prohibit unions from paying fines imposed on officials for unlawful conduct.
An FWC full bench has held that an employer is entitled to make workers redundant as part of a restructure to manage loss or damage caused by protected industrial action.
The FWC has declined AGL's request for an order to stop what it suspects is industrial action by employees at its Loy Yang A power plant in Victoria after it was unable to secure enough employees to work overtime, leading to the company being unable to bring two of its four power generating units back online on the weekend.
The FWC has granted MUA WA branch secretary Chris Cain a new entry permit but has warned that any breaches would undermine his credibility, making it "extraordinarily difficult" for him to continue to be deemed a "fit and proper" person.
