Evidence to be presented to the Heydon Royal Commission by former CFMEU construction and general division NSW branch official Brian Fitzpatrick "reveals a troubling state of lawlessness" in the branch and the union that manifests in their preparedness to go to "war" against companies that incur their displeasure, according to its counsel assisting.
The Fair Work Commission says that excluding supervisor-level employees from enterprise agreements is normal practice, and that those seeking to be included via scope orders need to present strong evidence to win the day.
The Department of Employment has referred to the corporate watchdog allegations that a textile company entered into “contrived arrangements” to avoid paying redundancy entitlements to 60 workers.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered the MUA not to push for "Australians first" job clauses that might breach anti-discrimination laws during the hotly-contested enterprise bargaining round in the offshore oil and gas services sector.
A TNT Express driver who clumsily tried to extricate himself from a conversation that had s--ual undertones with a younger female retail store employee did not breach the company's harassment and discrimination policy, the Fair Work Commission has found.
Boral chief executive Mike Kane has told the Heydon Royal Commission that his company is contemplating new legal action against its competitors, customers and the CFMEU under competition law, labelling them as conspirators in a union campaign to deprive it of its Melbourne market share after it refused to cut off supplies to Grocon.
The Heydon Royal Commission has raised the possibility that the CFMEU's bans on Boral concrete supplies might have contravened anti-cartel and blackmail laws, in addition to flouting secondary boycott provisions.
In a testy exchange with CFMEU barrister John Agius SC this morning, Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon has ruled that airing a building company director's secret recording of a telephone call with a union organiser was not unlawful because it was in the public interest for it to be played.
The Federal Circuit Court has found it has the discretion to make costs orders against lawyers in industrial matters, despite the absence of any such power in the Fair Work Act.
Employers seeking to make greenfields agreements for new projects will need to ensure they haven't employed any workers "necessary" for the enterprise, a Fair Work Commission full bench has confirmed today.
