A Federal Court judge has set a limit on the construction watchdog's use of anti-picketing laws to bring unions to heel, observing that "while picketing involves obstruction, not every obstruction is a picket".
McCain Foods acted "pre-emptively" when it locked out workers at a Tasmanian potato processing plant before they embarked on protected action, the Fair Work Commission heard today.
In a decision that has piqued the interest of local unions, a US National Labor Relations Board majority has upheld a ruling that deploying a giant "Scabby the Rat" near neutral employers did not amount to an illegal secondary boycott.
The Federal Court has reined in fines sought against a union official after accepting he organised a building site stopwork and unlawfully requested strike pay out of "guilt" for telling workers they wouldn't get in trouble for attending a "Change The Rules" rally.
A senior FWC member has belatedly imposed conditions on an AWU-CFMMEU Offshore Alliance official's entry permit after an employer association revealed he failed to disclose penalties for organising unlawful industrial action.
An employer rightly deducted 12 hours' pay from mineworkers who took as little as five minutes to secure their machinery and make it safe in preparation for protected action on five occasions across three days, the Federal Court has held.
In a novel use of the Corporations Act in an IR setting, logistics company DHL has secured an urgent interlocutory injunction to stop the UWU procuring alleged confidential information from about 60 shop stewards that might have given it a significant advantage in enterprise negotiations underway across the company's sites.
MUA members are set to resume protected industrial action at the Port of Melbourne's "robo-terminal" ahead of the Victorian Supreme Court hearing a massive damages claim against the union over a picket in late 2017.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has begun Federal Court action against the CFMMEU and five union officials stemming from the bitter 2017-18 dispute at Glencore's Oaky North coal mine in Queensland, which included a seven-month lockout and picket.
Highly-automated stevedore Victoria International Container Terminal won an interim anti-industrial-action order late last week that halted an escalating MUA campaign that included a 36-hour protected strike due to begin on Sunday morning.
