The MUA may be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation and penalties after the FWO commenced legal action against the union for allegedly organising unlawful, week-long industrial action at Sydney and Brisbane ports last year.
The Federal Court has refused to suspend penalties against 50 workers who walked out to protest a colleague's sacking, fining each individual up to $1,500 for their unlawful industrial action at ExxonMobil's Longford gas conditioning plant last year.
The Fair Work Commission has issued a three week stop order preventing workers at a South Australian logistics provider from engaging in unlawful industrial action in support of a worker it allegedly sacked for taking too much time off work after a cancer diagnosis.
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 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 Victorian Supreme Court took the "serious step" of imposing a representative order on individuals involved in an unlawful blockade at a Geelong oil refinery early this month, but extending it to encompass future participants would go beyond the terms of any previous such order, according to the judge in the case.
Despite securing almost $2 million in penalties against non-compliant players in the construction industry over 12 months, the FWBC's director says that it is losing the fight to restore law and order on building sites.
The FWC has banned hundreds of subcontractor workers at six Lend Lease projects in Queensland from taking unlawful industrial action in support of protected strikes by two dozen of the construction giant's direct employees.
Concrete supplier Boral suffered "substantial losses and damage" from a boycott organised by the Victorian CFMEU because it was a crucial supplier to Grocon, the Federal Court heard today.
