The ETU has launched a Federal Court challenge to the construction watchdog's power to assess whether enterprise agreements comply with the 2013 construction code.
The Senate economics committee is due to report today on its review of the "backpacker tax" bills, under which employers will be placed on a public register that the FWO can access to ensure they are complying with IR laws.
Leading employment law practitioners have predicted it is only a matter of time before Australia sees a test case similar to UK's recent landmark Uber decision which found drivers were employees, not contractors.
More than 50 construction workers are facing penalties after the Federal Court found they took unlawful strike action when they attended a CFMEU rally at a Perth children's hospital construction site in 2013, but the union says the case is a complete "farce".
The FWO has used accessorial liability provisions to secure substantial penalties across the chain of command of a frozen yoghurt franchise responsible for underpaying four overseas workers.
The CFMEU construction and general division's Victorian branch spent $13.1 million on legal costs in the 12 months to the end of last year, up more than five-fold from $2.3 million in 2014.
The Fair Work Ombudsman pursued accessories to alleged Fair Work Act breaches in nine out of every ten cases it lodged in court last financial year, while three-quarters involved visa-holders, according to its annual report.
The CFMEU says it will appeal to a full Federal Court over a judge's refusal to let it withdraw admissions that it was liable for right of entry contraventions by five officials at three Adelaide construction sites, after the High Court on Friday found the union inappropriately invoked its jurisdiction.
An Australia Post employee who two decades ago won the support of then shadow IR minister John Howard in postal union elections has failed to win his job back after an FWC full bench rejected his appeal.
The Federal Court has today fined a Melbourne painting & decorating firm and its director almost $20,000 for texting workers and telling them they must be members of the CFMEU before starting on-site work.
