A Queensland hospital group citing "coercion" concerns has failed to stop the ETU from obtaining a protected action ballot order sought just weeks after an identical ballot failed due to lack of a quorum.
Employers seeking longer notice periods for protected industrial action due to exceptional circumstances might have to provide stronger evidence, after the FWC refused Essential Energy's bid to extend the warning given by the CEPU from three to five days.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected StarTrack's bid to stop a 24-hour strike by TWU members, finding "little evidence" that the protected action would affect delivery of critical medical supplies such as COVID-19 vaccines.
Fair Work Commission member Ian Cambridge has today told StarTrack and the TWU that a "sensible position" should be adopted to ensure a protected 24-hour strike from midnight does not affect the delivery of time-critical goods such as COVID-19 vaccines.
The FWC has granted a contested AEC application to extend voting in a protection action ballot after pandemic-related postal delays held up workers' replies, but it has warned the agency to make more effort to comply with the tribunal's processes.
The StarTrack s424 bid, to be heard tomorrow, says the TWU's protected action should be terminated or suspended, because it would endanger delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, blood products and pathology samples, plus organs for transplant and other medical products.
Major freight operator StarTrack has applied for the FWC to stop a protected 24-hour strike by TWU members on Thursday because it would hamper the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical supplies.
Stevedore Qube has accused the MUA of "undertaking surveillance" of non-union employees it photographed working without masks onboard a ship in Fremantle last weekend.
