Registered organisations page 108 of 220

The AWU is seeking to change the rules governing the way it counts members after belatedly lodging membership figures of 69,786 as of December 2017 – a drop of 17,420, or 20%, from the figure reported a year earlier – following an external audit conducted at the urging of the ROC.

The Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union has slammed the Productivity Commission's omission of women in its draft report on the efficiency of the superannuation system, insisting it had "plenty of scope" to address a gender gap in which women retire with about half the savings of men.

The Federal Court has upheld Qantas' right to refuse access to documents sought over a "leave burn" program for aircraft engineers, in a decision a union leader says raises the bar for entering workplaces to prove breaches.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus has today mounted a spirited defence of solidarity among union members, saying that calling a strikebreaker a "scab" is "an accurate description", while the peak body's new president said she experienced the power of unions when as 14-year-old waitress, members helped her fight back against sexual harassment by a supervisor.

The FWC has given short shrift to union applications for a protected action ballot at Kimberly-Clark Australia, finding a cancelled meeting and a week's delay in securing a new date cannot be construed as being obstructive.

As union calls for the ROC's abolition have intensified in the wake of its raids on AWU offices, the watchdog's leadership maintains that behind the scenes there is increasing collaboration over a shared quest to protect members' interests.

Phoenixing short-changing workers hundreds of millions: Report; Parker gets feet under desk at FWO; ROC goes after NUW branch; ALERA conference tackles future of bargaining, wage setting.

The FWO has launched a challenge to last month's Federal Court order for the MUA to pay a $38,000 fine for a single contravention of the prohibition on unlawful strikes, when the watchdog was seeking $3.6 million for what it says was more than 500 breaches during industrial action against stevedore Hutchison Ports.

Global resources giant Rio Tinto, after its recent rapprochement with unions, is "the largest and most comprehensive example" of why it makes sense to bargain with employees' representatives, according to mining union leader Tony Maher.

Unions will next week consider pushing for stronger remedies for unfair dismissal by adopting measures such as removing the $73,000 compensation limit, enabling employees to pursue more than their lost income and empowering them to seek penalties against employers.