The AMWU has failed in its bid to obtain an entry permit for an organiser involved in the notorious Westgate Bridge dispute because imposing additional permit conditions would amount to "no more than shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted", says the FWC.
The Federal Court has ordered the CFMEU not to reimburse two of its officials for fines of $47,500 it imposed today, and it also separately fined the union $225,000.
One of the nation's largest abattoirs has failed to convince the FWC that unions should not distribute written materials when using right of entry permits for "discussions", after its HR manager tried to stop the AMIEU from giving workers a newsletter on a judgement regarding their agreement.
FWBC director Nigel Hadgkiss has confirmed that 21 of the 53 matters it currently has before the courts concern right of entry breaches, and the issue is at the centre of a further 19 investigations.
A senior FWC member has considered whether the tribunal should take into account a union's "poor history of compliance" and its "large number of contraventions" when it determines whether an official is a "fit and proper person" to hold an entry permit.
A self-confessed "smart-arse" organiser, who claimed to be crocodile hunter Steve Irwin after he entered a NSW building site for a safety inspection while under a Queensland permit, might be personally liable for any penalties.
An employer's insistence that a union organiser conduct meetings with members at a remote construction site in a non-airconditioned shipping container that reached temperatures of 50 degrees celsius did not excuse his abusive response, the Federal Court has ruled.
A new FWC ruling indicates that union officials seeking entry permits might have to demonstrate that they have recently received training on their rights and obligations.
The FWC has issued an AMIEU official and bipolar sufferer a conditional entry permit after confirming conditions can be imposed to satisfy the "fit and proper person" test.
